


The Eagle and the Wolf

by FireflyFish



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Inspired By Tumblr, Inspired by a Movie, M/M, obikin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-10 07:30:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7835731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflyFish/pseuds/FireflyFish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Did you know wolves and eagles mate for life? The Emperor didn't even leave us that."</p>
<p>Ahsoka Tano, the Horned Mouse, is a thief of great renown until she's apprehended by the Emperor's Justice and sentenced to death the next midday. Determined to escape, Ahsoka embarks on a perilous adventure where she discovers that her mysterious traveling companion is not what he seems, and just what exactly is the thing he calls the Force anyway?</p>
<p>A Ladyhawke inspired AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Horned Mouse

Ahsoka Tano had committed a great many crimes in her short, tumultuous life but certainly never anything worth being executed over. True, she was a thief and, yes, she had stolen quite a few expensive shiny things from the noble ladies visiting the slums of the capital but that didn’t mean she deserved to die for her crimes! Hard labor or transportation to the farming colonies yes, or perhaps being shipped off to the coliseum to be a part of a bloodsport, okay, but execution?

No. That was where the teenage Togruta drew the line.

They claimed it was because she was a ‘feral thick-blood’ who violated the Treaty of Shili by leaving the Lands Beyond the Southern Seas apparently with the sole purpose of pilfering jewelry from ridiculously inept nobility. It was enough to make Ahsoka’s eyes roll right out of her sockets.

She hadn’t violated anything. She was born and raised in the capital city, just like the rest of the non-human creatures who dwelt in the slums and the lower quarters, either trapped there after the Empire cut off access to their homelands or in the case of the Wookies, enslaved the whole race of them.

She never knew her parents but that didn’t matter. Ahsoka was quick and clever and soon made a name for herself on the streets. If you needed something stolen with a minimum amount of fuss, the Horned Mouse was your thief. She had robbed merchants, bankers, dukes and there had even been a time where she stole the jeweled hairnet of Imperial Princess right off her head. Ahsoka sold it for less than it was worth but she didn’t need the heat and there was never enough money to keep food on the table for all of the children back at the orphanage anyway.

So when the sentence came down in favor of execution, Ahsoka refused to submit to her fate and set about looking for a way out of the walled Imperial Palace and then the capital city itself. She was done with this crowded, dirty, filth covered cesspool of greed and depravity. The rolling hills of the countryside and the promise of honest work on some small, quaint farm appealed to the thief, who was tired of constantly running from the Emperor’s Justice.

Fortunately for Ahsoka, she had not come into her full height yet and even then she was a bit on the small side for her species so it took only a modicum of squirming and wriggling to slip through the hole in the ground that led straight into the sewers. She had waited until the early morning racket of daybreak executions, the screams of the condemned hiding the sound of the wrought iron scraping across the stone floor as she pulled and pulled and _pulled_ with all her might, praying to the goddess Shaak Ti for strength.

“Why won’t this… thing… move?” Ahsoka grunted before the sewer grate gave way with a loud, gong-like clang! Terrified that she had been caught and that her midday execution was going to be moved up to right kriffing now, she ran over to the grate and sat on it, bowing her head and shaking her shoulders as if she were sobbing over the horrible eventuality of her fate. The position of her body and the proximity to the sewer hole would be hidden from all but the most observant of guards and she knew for a fact that these chutas were half blind from drink as it was.

The guard walked past her cell about five minutes later, his wooden baton clacking against the bars of her cell as he licked his lips and told her what a shame it was that a pretty little freak like her was being put to death before he and his boys could have some fun.

Ahsoka curled up a little, looking small and pathetic from the guard’s point of view, who passed onto the next unfortunate soul without noticing the righteous fury radiating from her blue eyes. She had been dealing with the prejudices of humans her whole life but there was something extra galling about having it flung in her face on the day of her scheduled execution.

“Kriffing skug!” she hissed before she scooted over to the hole that led down into the sewers. She took a rock from the crumbling stone walls that made up her cell (Really? Couldn’t the empire afford to remodel its dungeon?) and tossed it down the dark hole, relieved to hear a thunk and a splash in quick succession. The drop wouldn’t be too great and she was likely to make it out without too great an injury.

Taking one last look at her cell, Ahsoka Tano set out to escape from the impenetrable Black Hole dungeon with a jaunty smile and a firm wish that the guard burned in hell for all eternity.

* * *

 

Ahsoka was in her room, changing out of her disgusting filth covered garb when the bells began to toll from the imperial towers that ringed the capital city. She frowned and focused on fastening the buckle of her belt before she stood up and surveyed this small room, little more than a closet really, that had been her only safe haven for the better part of her life. While she had a room in Plo Koon’s orphanage in the River district, she knew she could not go there and risk the Emperor’s Justice following her. Her bolt hole was where she kept the tools of her art and an extra change of clothes should she need it.

And after slogging through those sewers for most of the morning, she needed them.

She grabbed her tools, her knives and a traveling cloak before pulling up her tall boots and buckling them shut. With her outfit change complete, she bundled up what remained of her old life and odiferous clothes and climbed up to the roof of the building, running along the ridges of the roofs of the old and decaying buildings of the Hive of Villainy, as well bred people of the upper quarters called the Old Town district. She had to be careful, since some of the roofs had holes in them but once she came to the edge of the Merchants’ Square she knew she could drop down from one of the eaves hanging over the wall, discard her old rags and slip out in the crowd unnoticed.

The drop down to the cobblestoned streets was greater than she remembered and she landed and rolled with a pained grunt. Thanking the Great Lady that nothing was hurt or broken, she pulled on her cloak, tucked her montrals under her hood and stepped out of the alleyway and into the righteous cacophony of color and sound that was the Seventh Day Market.

She filched a bright red apple, sliding it into the bag on her hip as she passed a fruit stand. Dancing around a gaggle of young children being shooed away by an angry merchant, Ahsoka silently palmed a small bag of coins from an unsuspecting human merchant who was berating an Iridonian couple, calling them demons and wondering when the Emperor was going to drive them and the rest of the tainted thick-blooded scum from the Empire. Ahsoka waited for the merchant, who was bloated with gout, his white hair teased into a wispy cloud around his head, to leave the stall. When he finally moved on, a pinch faced younger woman by his side, patted his arm and told him how right he was.

Shaking her head, Ahsoka walked up to the family booth, looking at their wares, surprised to see a lovely beaded headdress in a wide variety of colors. She picked up one made of silver and blue, admiring the iridescent colors in the light. “How much?”

“Five coppers,” the father said, his head bowed and his voice defeated.

Ahsoka’s lips quirked. “How much are they _really_ worth?”

The father looked over at his wife, who carried a young son on her hip as their daughter peeked out from behind her hip, the little white tips of her horns barely visible through her rich brown hair. The family was so used to the brutality of the Empire that it was strange to be asked what was a fair price for their work.

“Half a gold piece,” the mother murmured, looking over at her son. “But the thin-bloods won’t pay a fair price.”

Ahsoka nodded and opened up the officious merchant’s purse. She took out three gold pieces and palmed them so they felt like one, handing them over to the father before she picked up the silver and blue head dress she had her eye on. With a wave to the children, she was on her way, humming a tune as she faded into the masses of people, the delighted and shocked gasps of the Iridonian family the only sign of of her passing through the market.

* * *

 

Once Ahsoka made it past the Black Northern Gates of the city, she let out a breath she had been holding all day. She travelled along the Imperial Northern Road, trying not to draw attention to herself, walking alongside caravans and coaches, blending into the crowds as she went. She made a friend with a traveling merchant named Hondo who offered her a place to rest on the front bench of his wagon.

“Where are you going, little one?” the Weequay asked, his voice raspy and full of roguish charm. “I thought your people come from the south beyond the sea. Why are you heading north?”

Ahsoka shrugged, biting into her apple. “I don’t really have a home and something tells me I need to go north.”

“Oh there is nothing up north!” Hondo assured her, laughing to himself as he slapped his knee. “There is no profit to be made in the mountains for a little girl like you! You should go east to the City of the Dawn! I hear they are always looking for pretty young things there! Imagine the gold!”

Ahsoka rolled her eyes at Hondo. “The City of Dawn doesn’t exist anymore. The Empire destroyed it when the last of the Jedi fell.”

“That’s what you think!” Hondo guffawed, shaking his head. “I have been to the City of the Dawn and it is beautiful! There are many opportunities for a talented little thief like you. Oh the profits you could make!”

“If there are so many profits out east, why are you heading north?” Ahsoka asked, taking another bite out of her apple. She watched the countryside roll past, green and undulating, with small white stone farm houses in the distance. It was exactly like she imagined but she couldn’t help feeling anxious and exposed, with no building to hide in, an alley to slip down or a well hidden hideaway when the heat got to be too much.

“I am taking the Northern Road to the City of Dawn, my child,” he said, gesturing to the peaceful countryside. “I am but a humble businessman bringing my wares to the capital of the east!”

Ahsoka snorted. “Right. You really think there’s anybody living there after the Empire set the whole place on fire during the Purges?”

“People rebuild,” Hondo shrugged, reaching out with his switch to keep his horse from chewing on a low hanging branch. “Tche! Anyway, I will take you to the City of Dawn. It will be no trouble. The Ashla wills it!”

Ahsoka finished off her apple and tossed it into the ditch that ran parallel to the road. “What is the Ashla?”

Hondo peered at her, his eyes sparkling and the permanent cheerful leer on his face widening and he leaned closer, his voice low and inviting. “The Ashla is the great power of the Jedi. It is their god and I think their after life. I don’t really know. I’ve never had the chance to ask one. Well there was that one time but that doesn’t count because he was pretending to be a traveling minstrel. Oh! He was amazing! I saw him kill two, no, three of my associates without breaking a sweat. Very impressive I must say.”

“Ah huh,” Ahsoka smirked, folding her arms over her chest. “And why does this Ashla want me to go to the City of Dawn? And just how much is it going to cost me?”

“Oh nothing too dear!” Hondo laughed again, waving his hand as they came to turn in the road and true to his story, the Weequay turned to the east. “What do you have on you? I won’t ask for more than twenty, no, fifteen percent!”

“Fifteen percent?” she shook her head. “No thank you! I don’t care what the Ashla says. I am not giving you fifteen percent of anything.”

“Thirteen and we call it a day!” He chortled and leaned closer. “I mean, we’ve already come so far and I have a good feeling about you, little girl! Together we could make a tidy profit.”

“Is money all you care about?” Ahsoka huffed, folding her arms over her chest. “Listen, thanks for the ride but I’m not letting some mystical heaven-god-magic-force tell me how I should live my life.”

“But the Ashla has brought us together, my child!” Hondo protested. “Surely you cannot deny your destiny! You _must_ come with me to the City of the Dawn! I will charge you ten percent! My final offer.”

Ahsoka shook her head, her lips quirked in a half smirk. There was an inn just ahead and she would stop there for the day while she considered what she was actually going to do with herself now. Standing up, she bowed to Hondo before she leapt off the travelling wagon, waving as the Weequay drove on.

“Another time then!” Hondo said as he held up a hand in a salute before he and his wagon continued on to the horizon. “May the Ashla be with you, little one!”

Ahsoka shook her head and walked to the inn, scattering a small flock of chickens as she pushed the door to the courtyard open. There were several rows of wooden benches and tables with different parties seated at each of them, a family of four, a duo of wandering holy men, a lone traveller in a dark cloak and a clutch of five figures that were impossible to make out from where Ahsoka stood.

She walked up to wooden table supported by two large barrels and smiled at the innkeeper, who scowled down his nose at her. “Can I help you, southlander?”

Ahsoka broadened her grin. “I’d like a glass of your finest. How much?”

The innkeeper arched an eyebrow and jerked his head at a small, too thin boy who scampered back into the building behind them, hurrying back out with a wineskin. The innkeeper held out his hand and grunted, “Three coppers.”

Ahsoka handed over the coppers and took the wine, glad to have something to quench her parched throat. The wine was smooth and fruity, with just enough warmth to relax her after a long and stressful day.

She surveyed the people staying at the inn and decided to give the tightly huddled clutch of men near the roasting pit a wide berth, electing instead to sit down at the opposite end of the table from the lone traveller, whose black cloak covered most of his face from where she was sitting.

Ahsoka took a long sip of her wine and pulled out the purse she had stolen from the fat merchant, frowning when she realized that the orange man hadn’t been as wealthy as he imagined himself to be. True there were a few fat gold pieces in there but more of his wealth was copper than gold with a bit of silver thrown in and there was no way it was going to get her to the City of Dawn.

Wait, what?

Ahsoka had absolutely no intention of going to a ruined city that had been razed to the ground by the Empire. There were no more Jedi and no crazy Weequay scoundrel would convince her otherwise. The Ashla was just a made up god and she had no use for children’s stories. She hadn’t gotten by on fairy tales. It had taken hard work and skill to make a name for herself and she was damn proud of her skill.

So then where would she go? She had no family in the Lands Beyond the Southern Seas, or if she did they never cared enough about her to come find her. To the west were the Jundland Wastes and beyond that were the Noble City States, who were in fact all run by criminals and robber barons so while that had some potential but she wasn’t so sure she wanted to find herself in the employ of a Hutt. They didn’t handle failure well and Ahsoka was clear eyed enough about the fate of a thief to know that eventually they all failed. Her skin was more important than any jewel could ever be. She was selfish that way and she didn’t care who knew it.

So that left going north or east.

Why did it always come back to going east? Did Hondo cast some kind of Jedi spell on her? Why couldn’t she get it out of her head?

“Kriffing skug,” Ahsoka muttered into her wine. “I swear if I ever meet that Weequay chuta again…”

_Okay, calm down Ahsoka. You shouldn’t make a decision like this on a stomach half full of wine. Let’s just get some food and see if there’s any easy money laying around._

Ahsoka looked over at the family of four and immediately decided against that. They had a hollowed out and hungry look, one that was shocking to the Togruta who had simply assumed that humans would always be treated better than thick-blooded races like hers. She spent so long under the black bootheel of the Empire that it never occurred to her that others were being ground into the dirt with her.

No, the family she would spare and the holy men too. It wouldn’t do to piss of any of the deities, real or otherwise. The Great Lady would not approve and she carried a whole hell of a lot more weight that Hondo’s Ashla nonsense.

_Ugh! Get it together, Ahsoka! There is_ **_no_ ** _Ashla!_

That left the stranger in the black cloak, who wasn’t drinking his beer so much as toying with it, passing it back and forth from one gloved hand to the other. Every so often he would raise it to his lips but now that she was paying closer attention, she could see that he never actually drank anything.

And now that she was really focused on her target, she could see that his cloak was exceptionally well made, trimmed in black fur fastened with a golden clasp, fashioned to look like a stylized ascendant crane. His gloves were thick and as black his cloak, in fact the only thing about him that wasn’t black and gold was the warm tan of his skin and the blue eyes that gazed off into the distance, occasionally obscured when he closed them and seemed to listen to something only he could hear.

Rich and crazy she could work with.

He wasn’t bad looking for a thin-blooded human. A little simple and plain but his attractiveness didn’t matter to the job at hand, which was to find a way to get his guard down and lighten his load for the journey. She wouldn’t rob him blind, nothing like what she was sure Hondo had been planning on doing but just enough to fill up her purse with real gold. Plo Koon had a saying that nothing could travel quite so far as a gold piece in a person’s pocket and she agreed with him.

Standing up slowly, making sure her movements were subtle and without sound, Ahsoka stepped around the edge of the table and _bumped_ into the holy man sitting behind her target, spilling wine on his grey robes and apologizing profusely as she backed away.

“I’m so, so sorry honored father!” she gasped, keeping her voice light and youthful, stammering as she unerringly backed into the solitary traveller in black, who spun in his seat with faster reflexes than a thin-blood had any right to have. She felt his hand on her back and she twirled in his very loose grip, smiling apologetically at him as her hands deftly claimed his purse and tucked it away under her tunic. “Oh! By the stars I am so clumsy today! Do forgive me!”

She spun around again, making her circuit complete as she ordered another cup of wine and some bread and cheese at the makeshift bar, returning to the table and sitting in the middle of so that when she nonchalantly returned the Stranger’s money purse he would simply assume that he had dropped it on the ground.

All in all, it was a flawless execution of larceny and she felt her blood hum in her veins as she ripped off a piece of bread and paired it with a bite of cheese. The Great Lady would be proud of her cleverness and skill.

That just left the dark Stranger, who was turning into a fascinating puzzle and Ahsoka loved puzzles.

“So… where are you headed, friend?” she asked, taking a long sip of her wine. “To the capital city in the south? If so you’d better hurry if you want to make it there before they close the Black Gates.”

The traveller pursed his lips. “I am waiting for someone.”

There was a distant cry, a strange rhythmic shrieking and then it was gone but the traveller turned towards it and Ahsoka could see his hands grip the beer mug tighter before he splayed them out and relaxed. He turned his gaze back to his drink and took another sip, this one actually making it past his lips.

Curious, her mind itching with possibilities, Ahsoka scooted down the bench to sit opposite her puzzleman. “Waiting for someone, eh? How long have you been cooling your heels?”

The man gazed up through the loose curls of his bangs at her, his blue eyes dark and she noticed he had a red scar that traced the outer line of his eye socket, shiny and sharp. It must have been put there by a blade and from the way he moved and the line of his shoulders, it was clear this man was all too familiar with violence and war. She could feel the menace radiating out from the angry twist of his lips but there was something else as well.

A bone deep sorrow and regret, an echo of emptiness and a loss so complete it was almost worse than death.

Ahsoka shook her head a little, startled and wondered where such ridiculously dramatic thoughts came from.

“You don’t want to talk to me,” the man in black said, making a small circle with his fingers before curling them back up as if he were retracting his claws. Frowning, Ahsoka resisted the sudden urge to get up and move away, telling her feet in no uncertain terms that she couldn’t leave until she returned the lighter purse to the man across from her.

“That’s a nice pin you’ve got there,” Ahsoka tried again, hoping to get him talking which she could use to hide the clinking of coins as she counted out the gold in his purse which was ridiculously heavy now that she had it in her hands under the table. “Where are you from? A Noble City State? I bet you’re from Serenno! They’re big into black up there aren’t they?”

Her target let out a muttered curse in gutterspeak and fixed his blue eyes on her. “Who are you and what do you want with me?”

“Nothing!” Ahsoka laughed nervously, wondering why she had a sudden urge to tell this man her life story. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she keep her damn mouth shut? This was no way to run a successful grift!

But the man across the table was done with her struggles and he waved his right hand in a circle and repeated his question and Ahsoka could have sworn she saw a swirl of lights and patterns as those black gloved hands moved through the air.

Was he magic?

Did he have the Ashla?

Why was she talking to him when everything inside of her spirit screamed at her mouth to stop?

“My name is Ahsoka Tano but more people know me as the Horned Mouse. I’m a thief and I escaped from the Black Hole of the Imperial Palace this morning and I also stole your purse. Sorry.”

The man blinked at her, sitting up and back, his hands resting lightly on the table as if he was in shock. “You… escaped from the Black Hole? That’s… that’s impossible! No one can escape from there.”

Control of her mouth returned to her, Ahsoka tossed the stranger’s purse at him and jabbed a finger in his direction. “What did you do to me? How did you make me say those things? I did nothing of the sort! Those were lies!”

He frowned at her. “You… you were able to sneak out of the Imperial Palace without being caught? And the City as well?”

“Shut up!” Ahsoka ordered, leaning forward as the clutch of five men noticed her and the Stranger. “Listen, I don’t know who you are but you need to shut up right now!”

“So whose health are we drinking to?” one of the cloaked men asked, his voice low as it rolled over the courtyard, soft like distant thunder. “The thief who escaped or the good citizen that turned her in?”

Ahsoka let out a squeak of protest, her hands going to the knives on her belt. She glared at her Stranger and swirled around to put both feet on the ground, ready to run at the first sign of trouble.

“Why don’t we drink to the Emperor’s health?” the Stranger offered, holding up his cup, not really turning to the other table but Ahsoka realized he had his other hand on the table and he was looking at her, as if conveying to her that the table between them was about to go flying if the situation went south. “The rightful Emperor Valorum the Second, may he rest in peace.”

“Treasonous words,” the other man said, and he shrugged back one shoulder of his cloak to reveal a sword hilt on his hip and a hand so red it was as if it had been dyed in berry juice and painted with blood and ink. “The true Emperor Palpatine would not look kindly on a traitor such as yourself.”

Ahsoka looked back and forth between the red man and the black, between the revealed blade and the hidden explosion waiting for the right moment to strike. The holy men had already run away and the family retreated back into the inn, the chickens clucking madly as the world around them seemed to hold its breath.

_Oh Great Lady Shaak Ti! Protect your wayward daughter in this her hour of need. I really don’t want to die here!_

The faint echoing screech of a distant bird seemed to puncture the stillness and suddenly one end of the wooden table was up and flying over towards the red man who whirled out of the way as the heavy wood crashed into his assembled men. Ahsoka let out a shout and scampered away from the Stranger, who tossed his hood back and smiled at his opponent, his expression wild and feral.

The man in red was revealed to be clad in just as much black as her Stranger but with red skin and angry onyx tattoos as well as a crown of horns that marked him as a Zabrak. Ahsoka was shocked to discover a thick-blood who served the Empire. He wore the badge of the Imperial Sith Guard and his blade was out, an angry red throated blade that seemed to draw her attention to it like a river to the sea.

_See me. Know me. Fear me._ **_Despair, little one!_ ** The blade seemed to whisper in Ahsoka’s mind and she scampered backwards, putting the protective bulk of the thin-blood Stranger between her and the Zabrak.

What the hell had she gotten herself into?

“So… the rumors were true,” the Zabrak almost purred, his yellow eyes sulphur bright and _wrong_ . “I heard you were back in the area but I thought even _you_ couldn’t be that stupid. Clearly, I overestimated you, Skywalker.”

“You were never any good on your own, Maul,” Skywalker sneered. “Or is it Lord Maul now? I hear you’ve been promoted to Palpatine’s head boot licker. Congratulations.”

“Jealous, General Skywalker?” the Zabrak began to pace in a lazy circle, trying to outflank Skywalker and Ahsoka, who felt it was prudent to keep the broad shouldered man in front of her.

“What’s your name, kid?” Skywalker asked softly, not risking a glance back at her as he kept pace with Maul.

“You don’t know? You were the one who magicked me into telling you, remember Skyguy?” Ahsoka hissed at him, clutching her knives close.

“Hey! Don’t get snippy with me!” Skywalker snapped, benches and courtyard furniture rolling or flying out of the way as they came to a stop. She wondered how he was doing that, if it was some kind of magic she had never seen before and resolved to ask him where he learned it.

Assuming they made it out of this alive that is.


	2. The Man in Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mind tricked into revealing she escaped from the Black Hole of the Imperial palace, Ahsoka Tano must rely on her wits and the mysterious General Skywalker to escape the Imperial Sith Knight Maul. But can she trust him and what does he want with her?

Ahsoka, the infamous Horned Mouse, thief par excellence and a very capable hand-to-hand fighter when it was called for, trembled in fear behind the large, black figure of the mysterious Stranger who had magicked her into confessing her crimes before an Imperial Sith Knight.

_ Look at me, Great Lady Shaak Ti! I was better off in the Black Hole of the Imperial Palace! Can you not spare some kindness for your favorite daughter? _

The man in front of Ahsoka-- Skyguy?-- kept his gaze and attention focused on the red and black Zabrak across the courtyard. The Stranger’s position was low and coiled, a wolf preparing to strike, and that would have been terribly impressive if he had a sword or some kind of weapon in hand but he didn’t so he just looked crazy.

Very crazy. Completely insane.

“When I tell you to run, head for the line of trees to the east,” Skyguy said as he shrugged his cloak off in a ridiculously dramatic display of shoulders and confidence. Ahsoka was stunned to see that he wasn’t as unarmed as she had thought. 

There was a straight sword belted to his side and she wondered why she hadn’t noticed it before. Skyguy drew the blade and Ahsoka marveled at its beauty, the elegant swirls of light and dark etched into the Ilum steel that faded out to pure white at the edges. The amazing piece of craftsmanship made her fingers itch to steal it, to run her hands over the leather hilt and bring the razor-sharp blade down on the heads of those who tormented the weak and helpless like they did back in the Imperial capital. To avenge the wrongs done to her people and her family.

This was a blade for a warrior, a true knight, and she could  _ hear _ a whisper, low and powerful, unfurling like the dark smoke of a forest fire.  _ I will protect you. By the will of the Ashla, I swear it. No harm shall come to you, little one. _

The Ashla?

“Wait! Are you a Jedi Knight?!” Ahsoka gasped up at this General Skyguy with shocked eyes. 

The Stranger said nothing, his blue eyes locked onto the radiating menace of Lord Maul in front of them. “The Jedi Knights are all but extinct thanks to that backstabbing skug over there.”

Lord Maul bowed his head and smiled, his yellowed, crooked teeth making him into a daytime monster, something corrupted and foul. Something to dread. Something to run away from. 

Ahsoka frowned as Maul’s men managed to get back to their feet and unsheathed their swords, none of which were made of the strange shifting patterns like Skyguy’s or Maul’s. Not that the lack of patterns would somehow make the knights any safer to be around but she couldn’t help but notice how drab they were compared to the otherworldly allure of General Skywalker and Lord Maul’s glowering contest.

“Kill Skywalker, but bring me the girl alive,” Maul commanded, his voice low and pleased as he backed away and let his men charge in. 

“Run!” Skyguy ordered and Ahsoka turned on her heels, running hell for leather toward the space between the inn and stables. The forest was on the other side of the building and she knew she could make it if her stranger could keep the Imperial knights at bay. 

Ahsoka ran as if her life depended on it, her feet slapping against the dry earth as she vaulted over a low wall and skidded past a bumbling Imperial knight, who flung his hands out to try to catch her. There was a vine trellis on her right and she swerved toward it, leaping up into the air and swinging herself up into the woven wooden structure that spread out above the courtyard below. The knights below, two now or maybe three, clambered over each other to grab at her feet before she pulled them up and started scrambling to the other end of the trellis. 

“What are you  _ doing _ ?” General Skyguy shouted over the loud and angry clang of sword fighting. “What part of run did you not understand, Snips?”

“That’s not my name!” Ahsoka retorted and let out a shriek as a sword jutted up from below the trellis and nearly punctured her foot. “Look out!”

She needn’t have worried about him as General Skyguy spun with a lethal grace, grabbing one knight by the shoulder and flinging him ten yards away to crash into the stone wall with a sickening crunch. There were three more, not including Maul, who was leisurely making his way to Ahsoka, his yellow eyes bright and feral, swinging his red sword in a flourishing arc.

“Uhm… General Skyguy? He’s heading this way!” Ahsoka shouted, hopping and jumping from intersection to intersection, the vine trellis swaying and shiver under the assault from the men below. She scampered to the far edge, flinging herself over and around, kicking one of the knights straight in the face. He flew backwards, crashing into his compatriot, and the two crumpled to the ground. “Yes! Hah!”

Ahsoka glanced back at General Skyguy, who had finished off another knight and was working on taking care of the other two. She watched in awe as he fought, his sword dancing like a ribbon of light. The Imperial knights were supposed to be some of the best warriors in the known world but compared to Skyguy they were lumbering idiots. Each spin of his blade, each twist of his dark form, managed to reveal an opening in the defense of his opponents and they all met a bloody and painful end. There was something hypnotic about the way he moved, the way the light of the late-afternoon sun seemed to caress him even as he brought an eternal night to the men he killed. 

“Gotcha!” Ahsoka found herself caught in the arms of one of the knights, his arms wrapped around her narrow shoulders as if he could hold her in place with sheer brute strength. She let out a curse and pushed her hands out and up, managing to create just enough space to slide out from her captor’s grip and run for the woods, Maul on her tail. She had had enough of the strange magical forces going on around her and if Skyguy wanted to pick a fight with the terrifying Lord Maul, she wasn’t going to stop him.

* * *

 

General Skywalker had finished off the last of the opponents sicced on him by Maul and scanned the area for the thief who had escaped from the Black Hole. She was running to the woods but that cursed Zabrak was following her at a slow prowl. He scowled and bent over to pick up his cloak, flinging it over one shoulder as he ran off to the tree where his horse Twilight was waiting. 

He vaulted up onto the black steed and whirled it around to pick out a route that wouldn’t be noticed by Maul, who was starting to pick up his pace a little as Ahsoka sprinted away from him. 

He heard the sounds of horses behind him and risked a glance back over his shoulder to see the men he hadn’t killed were scrambling to get to their rides and give chase after him. Shaking his head, General Skywalker reached into the layers of his tunic and pulled out a small silver whistle, which he gave three short blasts on before tucking it back out of sight. He narrowed his eyes on Maul and Ahsoka and spurred his horse on faster. 

He needed that little thief alive, damn it. 

Ahsoka had at least twenty yards on Maul but she was losing ground and it was only a matter of time before he caught up with her. General Skywalker angled his horse so that he could ride by and sweep the slight girl up onto the back of Twilight before the Zabrak was in striking range. It would be close but he had risked worse and come out alive.

Maul’s men following him on horseback was another problem altogether but he would worry about them once he had Snips safe. And in order to do that he needed to make sure Maul didn’t hear his approach until it was too late. He reached out with the Force, letting it unfurl from the center of his spirit into a twisting, writhing storm around himself and the horse, muffling the pounding thunder of Twilight’s hooves just long enough to sneak past the Sith Lord and snag the thief.

Who was looking back at him and was going to alert Maul to his presence too early.

“Oh no! No!” Ahsoka yelped and tried to veer away from Skywalker, her line taking her in the direction of the trees. He followed after her, now only a few feet away, and reached down to grab her by the back of her jacket and bodily hauled her up onto the saddle in front of him. 

“Skywalker!” Maul bellowed, startled by his appearance. He could feel the Zabrak reaching out for Snips with the Force, a dark, viscous puddle of anger and spite that grew out distended limbs, hungry for its prey. General Skywalker cloaked Ahsoka in his own presence and gave Twilight his head, giving him a cry of encouragement as they galloped away from the Sith Lord. 

Just up ahead was a high wall with a lower gate that he was confident his horse could make in spite of Ahsoka’s cries of protest. He bent low and tightened his hold on the girl in front of him, smirking back at the pursuing troops who were foolish enough to think they could keep up with him. He noticed at the arch over the gate and bent his head lower so that Ahsoka could hear him. “Hold on tight, Snips!”

“Are you crazy?!” she shouted but it was lost in the chaos of their escape as the horse contracted beneath them before launching himself over the wooden gate with an effortless lunge. General Skywalker let out a whoop of pure, proud enjoyment as they cleared the jump and kept on running, the steady gait of Twilight’s hooves leading them further and further away from the mess at the inn and all of the dark worries bound up in Maul’s presence. 

There was a piercing shriek overhead and he turned in the saddle to see the gate, grinning widely as their pursuers were stopped by the sudden plunging strike from a large golden eagle, dark brown and white feathers flared out and yellow talons flashing in the face of the mounts the Imperial knights were riding. He could hear the scared whinnies of the horses and heard the shouts and curses of the men who went flying over the heads of their steeds, no doubt crashing into the wooden gate, or the ground from the sound of things. 

“Good job,” he said and pulled out the whistle again, giving one long blast on it to recall the eagle as they rode off into the countryside and hopefully to freedom.

* * *

 

Once they were finally clear of the disaster at the inn and General Skywalker was convinced they were safe, he slowed the horse down to a walk and sighed down at the lapful of Togruta thief he had just plucked from the clutches of Lord Maul.

“Let me go!” Ahsoka insisted, her voice hot and testy. “Let me go this instant! I’ll give you your money back, just put me down!”

Skywalker brought them to a halt and promptly dropped Ahsoka to the ground. “You know, a normal person would thank me for saving their life.” 

“Well when you find a normal person and save their life then be sure to enjoy their thanks,” Ahsoka retorted as she smoothed out her travelling clothes and brought some order to her outfit. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have been in that mess in the first place!”

“Excuse me?” Skyguy snorted with amused disbelief. “This from the girl who tried to rob me?”

“Tried?!” Ahsoka folded her arms over her chest and huffed. “I did rob you, General Skyguy! I could have walked off with all your gold if it wasn’t for my good nature and those terrible Imperial Knights. Then where would you be, huh?”

“Chasing you down,” Skyguy said and then looked up at the sound of a repeated shriek of a large bird who was lazily soaring on the thermals overhead. Ahsoka turned to follow his gaze and she made out the shape of a distant raptor soaring through the bright blue up above.

Deciding that she really didn’t want to be involved with the strange man, Jedi Knight or not, Ahsoka grabbed her money purse and pulled out the handful of gold coins she had taken from him and held them out. “Here. This is what I stole.”

He shook his head. “We need to keep moving on if we want to stay ahead of Maul. I doubt he’ll follow us himself, but he’ll send his men after us.”

“What?!” Ahsoka gasped, gesturing at the road that had brought them this far. “Why? What did you do that made him so angry?”

“You’re the one who escaped from the Black Hole Dungeons, Snips.” Skyguy pointed out, the smirk back and his blue eyes dancing with dark humor. “I’m pretty sure you’re the one they’re after.”

“My name is Ahsoka, not Snips!” she nearly shouted, curling her hands into fists at her side and practically stomping her foot in irritation. “And I am not going anywhere with you!”

Skyguy seemed to relax back onto his saddle, that infuriating grin bleeding out into his whole posture, arrogant and confident. “The way I see it, I saved your life. You owe me a life debt and the last time I checked, the Great Lady Shaak Ti did not look kindly on those who refused to honor their life debts.”

Ahsoka gaped at him, her eyes nearly bulging out of her head. “You… you… Oh fine! Fine! But I am not giving you any of your gold back!”

“Fine,” Skyguy leaned down to offer his arm to her, that smug boyish expression both infuriating and disarming at the same time. She reached out to shake his hand and let out another yelp as he hauled her up onto the horse behind him, shifting forward to give her more room. “And my name is Anakin. Anakin Skywalker.”

“Sure thing, Skyguy,” Ahsoka muttered as she tried to make herself comfortable from her spot behind him. “So where are we going?”

“East,” he replied as he urged the horse back into a walk. “Away from the Imperial capital for now.”

There was another shriek from the bird overhead and Ahsoka let out a gasp as it flew toward them, clutching at the back of Anakin’s cloak as the bird flew far too close to her montrals for her comfort. There was strangely loud flapping of wings and a few soft chirps of recognition and when she was brave enough to peek around his shoulders she was startled to see a golden eagle perched on Anakin’s right arm.

“By the Great Lady! That bird is huge!” she gasped, marvelling at the spiked crown of golden feathers that radiated from the top of the bird’s head and down the back of its neck before blending into the warm brown hues of the rest of its body. Its feet and talons were practically the size of her hand and its beak was dangerously hooked. And its eyes…

It was staring right at her and it seemed to fluff up, a short, sharp protest swelling in its breast.

“Shh… Easy there,” Anakin murmured, reaching up with his other hand to stroke the ruffled feathers of the eagle, his voice soft and low, as if he were talking to an upset infant. Slowly and gently he stroked the golden hued feathers, scratching under the jaw of the offended raptor until those piercing brown eyes blinked and the bird focused its attention back on Anakin. “That’s a good boy. See? She’s harmless.”

Ahsoka nodded in what she hoped was a friendly and not at all threatening way. “Yup! That’s me! Harmless Ahsoka! Please don’t claw my eyes out!”

Anakin glanced back over his shoulder at her, one eyebrow arched. “He wouldn’t do that. Well… not unless I tell him to.”

“That is not making me feel any safer,” she muttered, returning to hide behind Anakin’s shoulders when the eagle let out another loud shriek. “Sorry! I’m sorry!”

“I think he needs a nap,” Anakin grunted and reached into a saddlebag to pull out a hood for the eagle, pulling it over his head with a minimum of fuss and the faintest, softest cry from the bird. Ahsoka watched in surprise as he waved his fingers through the air, weaving them back and forth as the ties on the hood moved of their own accord, creating a loose knot that held the leather hood in place. 

With the bird at peace, Anakin picked up the reins of his horse and nodded back at Ahsoka, who was watching him with awe and wonder. “C’mon. Let’s find a place to stay for the night and we can talk about how you can repay that life debt tomorrow.”

“Whatever you say, Skyguy,” Ahsoka sighed and wrapped an arm around his waist as they continued down the road. “But I still say that this is all your fault.”

The eagle let out a faint peep and she added. “See? Even your bird agrees with me.”

* * *

 

Sunset was still a few hours away when Anakin turned the horse off the main road to a rundown and ramshackle collection of sticks, sod and old salvaged wood that was somehow masquerading as a home. There was a barn at the far end of the small homestead and there was couple of Neimoidians who squinted up at the two travelers with suspicion and perhaps the sheen of greed in their red eyes. 

Anakin peered at the green-skinned beings, his black-clad figure and bright blue eyes intimidating in the soft filtered shadows of the forest around them. “My companion-in-arms and I require lodging for the night.” 

The Neimoidian glowered, clearly not liking the strange thin-blood accompanied by a young Togruta and a ridiculously large eagle. Ahsoka couldn’t blame them and rolled her eyes as the husband. She assumed it was the husband since it was kind of hard to tell with Neimoidians. He shook his head sharply. “Ah… no! No! There is no room. Please go away!”

Ahsoka let out a puff of air. “We can ride on. There’s still plenty of light.”

“There’s not enough time to bed down,” Anakin replied to her before he turned back to the quailing farmer and his wife. “We’ll pay for it, of course. We are not above compassion for those in misery.”

Ahsoka sighed and shook her head. “You’ll pay for it. I am not giving them one copper.”

“Pipe down!” the General ordered and Ahsoka turned away, letting out an irritated puff of air.

The Neimoidian couple conferred with each other, talking in a burbling, tonal language with a few positive tones from the wife that managed to convince the husband to let them take the barn for the night. 

“Thank you for your kindness,” Anakin said and led the horse onward, Ahsoka watching the shuffling couple who huddled together as they hurried back into their ramshackle house. She frowned as she noticed the husband carrying a rather vicious-looking ax into the house. 

“I have a bad feeling about those two,” she muttered. “I don’t trust them.”

“Well I don’t either but this will do for tonight,” Anakin said with a shrug. 

They dismounted and Ahsoka watched as Anakin unsaddled the large black horse and carried the saddle and saddle bags into the lower half of the barn, which was filled with relatively new straw and separated from the rest of the structure by a door that came up to Ahsoka’s chin. She was going to have the loft to sleep in, dry and safe, but she would have preferred staying in a proper inn as opposed to curling up in a pile of hay in the middle of the woods.

After making sure she was happy with her sleeping arrangements, she clambered back down the stairs to the loft and announced her intention to get some rest. The light was slowly dying and the excitement of the day was starting to wear on her. “If there’s nothing else I can do,  _ General _ , I’m going to turn in.”

Anakin gazed down at her from the other side of the small gate and it was clear her sarcasm did not go unnoticed. “You can take care of my horse,  _ Snips _ .”

Ahsoka let out a soft groan and nodded, walking past the large eagle quietly sleeping on a rung of the ladder. She walked to the warhorse that was quietly waiting to be brushed down and watered, the General following her. “What? You have more instructions?”

“Sleep with one eye open,” Anakin said, coming to lean against the thick branches the poor Neimoidians were using as timber. “And don’t disturb me while I sleep. I could take your head off before I know it’s you.”

“Ooookay then,” Ahsoka sighed, holding her hands up in defeat. “Feed the horse, don’t interrupt your beauty sleep. Is that all?”

“And gather some wood for the fire before you turn in,” Anakin smiled. “In case we get cold tonight.”

“Oh, so I’ll get to share this luxurious fire? How kind of you!” she retorted, taking the reins of the horse in her hands. “C’mon, old girl!”

Chuckling, Anakin reached out to stroke the side of the imposing black beast. “His name is Twilight. Go with her, boy. She didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

Ahsoka blanched in spite of her orange skin and risked a small glance at the stallion’s equipment to confirm before she tried to lead Twilight away again, who followed her this time with a soft snort and a flick of his tail. Anakin watched them go, saluting as they followed the curve of paddock and headed towards a distant well. When Ahsoka turned to look back at him, he had retreated back inside the barn and was out of sight. 

The rest of the growing dusk was filled up with taking care of Twilight, who seemed to like Ahsoka from the way he nuzzled his head against her, probably searching for a treat. She laughed at the soft velvet touch of his nose and held up the bucket of water for the horse to drink from. He was messy and enthusiastic but there was something about him that she couldn’t quite place, a familiar feeling, perhaps, or maybe she was imagining it. Either way, she came back from the barn with a feeling of calm. 

Anakin didn’t answer her call and the eagle was gone when she returned with Twilight and tied him up to the gate. She thought she heard the bird faintly coo from the other side of the door but she didn’t think predatory birds like eagles cooed so she chalked it up to her imagination. The sun was almost gone and she hadn’t gathered any wood for the fire and so she headed out to the forest that the homestead seemed to be carved out of. 

She marched into the woods, grumbling to herself as she started to gather the necessary twigs and branches to make a proper fire. “Comrade in arms, hah! His slave is more like it.”

Ahsoka grabbed at a handful of thicker twigs, a few as big around as her finger, shoving them under her arm as she walked and complained. “Feed the horse! Gather wood for the fire! Look at me, Great Lady Shaak Ti! I was better off with Hondo! He was a liar and half-crazy but he respected me!”

She continued on, the bundle of twigs and branches under her arms growing bigger with each emphatic complaint and stomp of her foot through the underbrush. The sun was beneath the horizon now and Ahsoka had to hurry to gather enough wood to keep the embers of the fire going for the rest of the evening. The dying light was only going to be with her for only a little bit longer.

“What a strange man,” Ahsoka continued, snapping an extra-long twig in half. “He wants something from me. I don’t know how I can tell but I just know it. He wants me to do something for him and I’m sure it’s not going to be good.”

Feeling a swell of confidence rise up in her chest, Ahsoka threw down the pile of sticks with vigor and threw her shoulders back as if she was addressing Shaak Ti herself. “Well, whatever it is, I’m not going to do it! I am a young woman, Great Lady! I’ve got prospects! I’m going to…”

The sound of a branch snapping behind Ahsoka pulled her up short as a shiver of panic ran down her spine. She whipped her head around, trying to sense if anyone was behind her and coming up with nothing. 

Ahsoka shook her head and took another few steps only to hear the sound of rustling and more branches being broken. The tension in her spine crawled into her shoulders and down into her gut: cold, slimy fear wrapping itself around her heart.

There was another series of cracking branches and dry leaves crunching, and Ahsoka let out a faint, “Hello?”

Realizing she had left her knives back in the barn and feeling terribly exposed, Ahsoka turned back to the barn, forgetting about whatever grandstanding nonsense she had been considering earlier. She started walking, slow and careful, but the sounds of breaking wood and the rustling of the dead leaves suddenly grew too close for comfort and she burst into a sprint, running as fast as her feet could carry her, letting out a shout for the General as she ran.

“General! General Skywalker! Anakin! AnaAAAH!” Ahsoka cried out as she slid down the path back to the homestead, nearly tripping over a knotted root as she scrambled upright, keeping her back to the forest as she shivered and trembled her way back to the comforting bulk of a wide, black oak tree. 

She was almost there when the world within her seemed to explode with terror and she whirled around to see the Neimoidian husband raising up an ax to kill her. Ahsoka screamed and fell backwards, knocked off her balance by fright and by that same sensation that had spun her around before. Hands and feet scrabbled in the soft dirt and leaves, desperate for purchase to put some space between her and her would-be murderer, who raised the weapon high above his head to strike.

And then the man was screaming, howling with high pitched shrieks as a wolf, as black as night and practically the size of a man, attacked him. The large creature caught the Neimoidian by the throat and shoulder and his angry snarls and growls startled Ahsoka out of her daze. 

Scrambling back upright, she bolted to the barn, shouting all the way. “General! General Skywalker! There’s a wolf! A wolf! General!”

Ahsoka ran into the lower half of the barn, absolutely terrified to find that the tall, dark figure in black was gone, only the faint indentation of his body in the hay to show that he had been there.

Another high pitched wail of agony came from the Neimoidian and Ahsoka grabbed at the saddlebags, looking for a weapon, perhaps the sword from before, to use on the wolf, or perhaps the farmer who had tried to kill her. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she wanted a weapon and she wanted it twenty minutes ago. 

Her eyes alighted on a crossbow and some bolts. She spilled them all as she stumbled back to the other side of the barn, kicking hay everywhere. 

The wolf snarled and growled as he brutally mauled the farmer, the night growing stronger as the attack continued. Ahsoka tried to draw back the crossbow and let out a cry of distress as her hands shook too violently the first time. She stuck her foot through the loop on the front of the weapon and yanked and pulled and  _ pulled _ until the string of the crossbow finally made it back over the hook, repeating “A wolf! A wolf!” to herself as she worked.

Practically tossing the crossbow up onto the top of the twig and branches wall that she stood behind, Ahsoka put one shaking bolt onto the crossbow and prepared to take aim at the dark, hulking figure of primordial nightmares gnawing that poor, pathetic and terrified Neimoidian to death. 

Ahsoka took a breath and focused on the wolf. 

Then a hand stole across her vision and plucked the bolt from the bow and Ahsoka whirled around, too panicked and frightened to even scream. 

A man stood there, a man she did not know or recognize, with a fringe of summer wheat hair and a beard to match. There was something warm about him regardless of the circumstance, something that spoke of summer, grass-filled meadows, and peace, except for his eyes, blue-grey like a winter sky. He was wearing a dark cloak with the hood pulled down, and he looked her in the eye and shook his head, just once, before raising a finger to his lips and letting out a soft shushing sound. 

Terrified out of her mind, Ahsoka nodded, mute and still. 

The man gazed past her, to where she knew the wolf and the farmer were. He stepped away from her, walking toward the entrance of the ramshackle building of branches and brush. Horrified that he was going to go out into the dark with the wolf, she hurried after him. This man was unarmed and seemed too kind to meet with such a horrible end. 

“Don’t go out there!” Ahsoka cried, grabbing at his arm. “Don’t go! There’s a wolf! A huge wolf, as big as me and, I think, a dead man. He tried to kill me but the wolf got him and what are you doing? There is a man-eating wolf out there!”

The luminous man turned back to Ahsoka and smiled, a wry quirk of his lips and the faintest tilt of an eyebrow. “I know.”

And then he stepped out into the night, walking slowly in the direction of the wolf.

“Sir! Please!” Ahsoka called out and then darted back inside the ramshackle little hut as the wolf cried out again. She turned away, confused and terrified and too emotionally exhausted to spare the pale man another thought. 

“Maybe I’m dreaming,” Ahsoka decided, holding her hands to her head as if she could make the world right again with a firm shake. “My eyes are open, which means I’m awake but this cannot possibly be real! I must be asleep, dreaming I’m awake, wondering if I’m dreaming.”

The strange man’s voice called out through the darkness, faint and lilting with the polished accent of educated scholars and high born noblemen. “You are dreaming, little one.”

Ahsoka gasped as she scurried up the ladder into the second story of the barn, hurrying over to the empty lattice that gave her a view of the homestead and whatever it was the new pale stranger was up to. She watched, wide-eyed and numb with shock as the man walked over to the wolf and held out his hand, which the wolf sniffled and then butted up against as if it had just greeted its owner. 

The two moved into the night, their dark figures mixing into one as she turned away, her heart pounding in her chest as she stared up at the slipshod roof over her head. She frantically called out to the Great Lady, hoping that Shaak Ti could offer her some kind of peace in the midst of this nightmare powered evening.

“I have not seen what I have just seen. I do not believe what I believe, Great Lady!” Ahsoka whispered to the roof and the stars above. “These are magical, unexplainable matters and I beg you not to make me a part of them!”

But in spite of all her entreaties to the stars and the Great Lady, Ahsoka somehow knew that tomorrow would only drag her deeper and deeper into the strange mysteries surrounding the now-missing Anakin Skywalker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My chapter summary totally sounds like the announcer from the Clone Wars tv show. XD
> 
> Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this new chapter. There was quite a bit of action and adventure and MURDER! Wait... we're not supposed to be excited about that. >_>;; Anyway, there's quite a bit of heavy quoting from Ladyhawke in this chapter so if something sounds familiar, it's because I'm quoting directly from the movie. 
> 
> Thanks so much for reading and as always you can find more Star Wars fun over at [FireflyFish](http://fireflyfish.tumblr.com/) where I ramble in the tags and generally have a happy, silly time.


	3. The Emperor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahsoka and General Skywalker continue to travel east, followed by the mysterious Pale Man. Meanwhile Lord Maul gallops to the south and the Imperial Capital.

The next morning dawned bright and early with a clear blue sky and a great and mighty roar of fury from Ahsoka.

“WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?”

Anakin let out a yawn and looked up from where he was sleeping in the soft, warm hay, blinking in confusion at the angry Togruta standing over him. “And good morning to you, too, Snips. I was here all night last night.”

“No, you were not!” Ahsoka insisted as he stood upright, pulling on a black leather jerkin and tying it shut over his black gauze undershirt. He gathered up his gloves and the rest of his clothing and armor, pulling each piece on as the little thief fumed at him. “I ran in here for your help last night and you were nowhere to be seen!”

Anakin stilled and turned slowly towards her, his blue eyes sharp and his tone dangerous. “I thought I told you to stay in the hayloft last night. What were you doing down here?”

“I was being attacked!” Ahsoka snapped, gesturing wildly. “That stupid Neimoidian farmer who I told you _I_ didn’t trust? He tried to kill me last night when I was coming back from the woods with firewood for _your_ stupid fire!”

“What? When did that happen?” Anakin gaped, confused and a flush of red appearing on his cheeks. “Are you alright? Did he hurt you? Do you need a healer?”

“I’m fine, thank you _very much!_ ” Ahsoka glared, jabbing a finger at Anakin. “No thanks to you, General Skyguy! This big, giant, terrifying black wolf showed up and tore the poor farmer’s throat out!”

“Poor farmer?” Anakin protested in confusion. “You said he was trying to kill you.”

“That doesn’t mean he deserved to die!” Ahsoka shook her head, gesturing. “I bet he’s still out there! Moldering on the ground!”

Anakin rolled his eyes and finished tying up his jerkin and bracers before he pushed past Ahsoka and the eagle, who was quietly but with growing insistence shrieking for release from the hood. “You know what? I think you’re imagining things. There was no farmer and no big black wolf. I’ll show you.”

“There was too!” Ahsoka stormed after him.

They came to a stop in front of the tree where Ahsoka claimed the attack happened and Anakin stood there, triumphantly gesturing to an empty spot on the ground where the Neimoidian was supposed to be. “I hate to break it to you, Snips, but I think your imagination was playing tricks on you.”

“No!” Ahsoka cried, looking around. “He was here! It happened! I saw it! I ran back to the barn and grabbed for the crossbow and was going to shoot it when the Pale Man appeared.”

“Pale man?” Arching an eyebrow, Anakin folded his arms over his chest. “What Pale Man are you talking about?”

Ahsoka wrapped her arms around her waist, shaking her head as she paced back and forth. Mumbling to herself, Ahsoka tried to put her scared and chaotic memories in order as Anakin watched her, a growing sense of uneasiness rising within him. “Ahsoka? What Pale Man are you talking about?”

“He was taller than me and his hair was brown, maybe a bit red and his eyes,” she looked up and back at Anakin. “They were like the sky during winter, blue-grey and wide. He took the bolt out of the crossbow and then he just walked off with the wolf as if he knew it. I thought… I thought he was too nice to die at the hands of such a beast.”

“You were going to shoot the wolf that saved your life?” Anakin gasped, horrified as he realized what she was talking about. “That is no way to repay kindness!”

“Kindness?” Ahsoka squeaked. “To a man-eating wolf? Are you insane?”

“A man-eating wolf who saved your life,” Anakin grunted as he marched back to the barn. “Are you packed and ready to go?”

“Go?” Ahsoka echoed, hurrying after him. “What about the Pale Man? What about the Neimoidian? What about his wife?”

“We don’t have time to worry about that,” he said, going back into the barn and picking up his saddle and dumping it into Ahsoka’s arms. “Saddle up Twilight while I get finished dressing.”

“I… I don’t know how!” she protested, grunting as she rebalanced her hold on the saddle. “And what are we going to do for breakfast?”

“We’ll pick something up on the road,” Anakin shrugged, frowning down at the crossbow neatly placed next to the saddle bags and the scattering of bolts across the barn floor. He bent down to gather them up, counting them out before he dropped them into the quiver. “Just throw the saddle blanket on his back and then put the saddle up there. I’ll take care of the rest.”

The eagle let out an indignant shriek and Anakin let out a sigh, walking over to him, his voice low and soothing. “I know. I know. You want to go look for breakfast but we’re still in the woods. I promise we’ll be back on the road soon. You just have to give me some time.”

The next sound out of the large bird was not nearly as piercing but it was clear to Anakin that the clock was ticking.

Ahsoka grunted as she found the saddle blanket, surprised at how heavy the thickly padded object was. Twilight stood in place, stamping his back rear foot, his tail flicking in minor annoyance, the large black stallion affected by the stress and tension of the two people around him. Ahsoka hobbled over to the horse and with a grunt of exertion she lobbed the padded blanket up onto the back of the horse.

“Sorry about that, Twilight,” Ahsoka sighed, stepping forward to stroke the black creature with a steady hand. “I’m sure the general could do this better but he’s busy talking to the bird.”

Twilight let out a snort and turned his head to nuzzle against Ahsoka’s montrals, which tingled at the soft velvet of his nose. She smiled up at the large creature, enjoying the feeling of _warmth_ coming from him. “Hey, Skyguy? Where did you find a sweetheart like this?”

“Twilight?” Anakin asked, emerging from the barn to begin the work of saddling and bridling his horse. “I’ve raised him from the day he was born.”

“In the City of the Dawn?” Ahsoka asked, looking for more clues into her mysterious general’s history. “That’s where you’re from, right? You’re a Jedi Knight.”

Anakin frowned at the saddle and let out a heavy breath. “You ask a lot of questions, Snips.”

“Are you?” Ahsoka looked off to the side, wondering why he couldn’t be honest with her, why it was causing him such pain. “People don’t just ride around with armor, crossbows and swords like yours. And they don’t get attacked by the head of the Emperor’s Sith Guard like you were.”

Exhaling, Anakin finished saddling Twilight before he turned to Ahsoka, who was looking up at him with round blue eyes, her voice pleading. “Just… tell me the truth. I won’t tell anyone I promise. Are you a Jedi Knight?”

Anakin took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes. I was, once. But I left the Order long ago.”

Deciding she had pushed him far enough for the morning, Ahsoka helped gather up the rest of Anakin’s things before he taught her how to tie the packs to Twilight’s saddle. After Anakin mounted the horse and called the eagle to his arm, he pulled Ahsoka up behind him and they headed back out into the forest and off towards the east and the rising sun.

* * *

 

“Open the gates! Open the gates! Lord Maul has returned!”

Lord Maul thundered through the outer courtyard of the Imperial Palace, the hooves of his war horse loud and cacophonous against the cobblestones. He galloped through the barracks of the Imperial Guard and through the ring of gates and turns that led deeper into the palace complex before he came up to a stop in the courtyard of the Sith Guard, the new guard unit that had been installed in the palace after Emperor Palpatine took the throne.

Lord Maul flung a leg off his horse, tossing the reins to a sergeant, and slid off his mount. The man opened his mouth to greet the head of the Sith Guard and was rewarded for his actions by being shoved out of the way, collapsing backwards onto the ground.

“My lord!” The sergeant called out after Maul. “His Grace said that he is not to be disturbed!”

Maul looked back over his shoulder at the pathetic human lying prone on the muddy cobblestones. He reached out a hand, the Force surging outwards to constrict around the man’s throat as he lifted him up into the air like he weighed no more than a goblet of wine. The man gasped and struggled, his feet kicking and arms flailing through the air before Maul tossed him away.

“He _will_ see me,” Maul retorted, his voice soft and dangerously low as he stormed into the private section of the Imperial Palace.

Each Emperor put their own unique spin on the private quarters of the palace. Before Emperor Palpatine there had been Emperor Valorum, who had been fond of the color blue and the classical works of art from the early periods of the Empire, when the position of Emperor was elected by the Noble Houses.

Few of the traditional statues still survived from the days of Valorum, most replaced with brutal warriors and persecuting figures carved from blunt slabs of granite and veined marble. The soothing blues and dove greys had been replaced with stark black and white, accented with bloody crimson.

Maul stomped through the hallway, his footsteps ringing out against the high vaulted ceiling. He pushed a set of doors open with the Force and stepped out onto the top landing that led down to stairs that would take him directly into the garden where the Emperor was. The steps led out to the garden where the Emperor was listening to a string quartet and watching a young woman dancing slowly and stately to the dirge-like music.

He knew he was interrupting, that he was violating the Emperor’s personal sanctum and his retreat away from the petty squabbling of the nobility and the heavy burden of running the Empire. He knew that he was risking not only the disapproval of the Emperor but of his Sith Master, who knew all the ways that pain could break a man and thoroughly enjoyed watching that knowledge be put to use on lesser beings.  

Who had employed a great deal of that knowledge on Maul in his younger days, making him stronger, faster, impervious to pain and torture.

He doubted his news would please the Emperor but he also knew that it was of vital importance that he be informed for the return of Skywalker.

The man who had once held the position Maul now held, who had once been the captain of the House Guard and avenging blade of the Empire.

But no more. Now Maul stood in his place, faster, stronger, and more powerful in the Force than Skywalker could ever hope to be.

There was no weakness in Maul.

His master had seen to that.

Maul crossed through the stone steps of the garden, his steps becoming soft and well-mannered as he watched the dancer, crowned with halo of white flowers, fall back into the arms of a male dancer clad in black, his face covered with a black shroud as he carried her away. The stately song came to an end and the Emperor addressed the air, not even bothering to look back at Maul. “Do you bring me news of the capitulation of the House of Alderaan to the north, Lord Maul?”

“The Organas have not yet submitted to your will,” Maul replied, bowing low as the Emperor stood and walked past him. He fell into step behind Palpatine, his gaze focused on the floor his master walked over.

“Then why do you invade my garden, filthy and empty-handed?” Palpatine’s voice was thin and brittle, a mask for the true strength that lay hidden beneath the exterior of a seemingly feeble old man.

“Skywalker has returned, your Grace,” Maul murmured. “I have seen him with my own eyes.”

Palpatine came to a stop for a moment, the only outward sign that the great Sith mastermind had been surprised by this information. He raised one pale, limp hand and dismissed the rest of the guards and attendants before he croaked out in a low voice, “Walk with me.”

They walked down along a covered arch on the edges of the garden. Maul took a breath and tightened his grip on his blade. “My men are searching for him as we speak, my Master. He is traveling with a Togruta brat who claims to have escaped from the Black Hole. She… she is strong in the Force. It took Skywalker two tries to mind trick her.”

The Emperor frowned and Maul could tell this was not good news. “And why did you fail to defeat Skywalker and bring him to me? Did I not make my displeasure clear after your last failure in Serenno?”

Lighting leapt from the Emperor’s fingers and Maul collapsed to the ground, gritting his teeth and doing his best to swallow his screams of anguish.

He was only partially successful.

Once his Master was sated for the moment, Maul managed to wheeze out an explanation. “I only had a handful of men and we were ambushed, my master. It will not happen again! I swear it.”

“It had better not, for your sake,” the Emperor snapped, his tone biting. “What of the eagle?”

“Eagle, my lord?” The pain from the lightning was making it difficult to follow his master but Maul did his best. “I don’t understand.”

“There must be an eagle!” Emperor Palpatine hissed, his yellowed eyes sharp and angry. “Find the eagle and you will find Skywalker. Bring me either and I will forget your failings in Serreno, Maul.”

“Yes, my Master,” Maul answered, kneeling before him. “And what of the Togruta girl?”

Frowning, the Emperor turned away. “She is of no concern. The City of the Dawn is fallen. The Jedi have been destroyed and now the Sith reign supreme. When you find her, kill her. No one escapes the Black Hole and lives. Am I understood, Lord Maul?”

“It will be as you command, my Master,” Maul said, rising back of up to his feet, bowing low again before he was dismissed by the Emperor.

Backing away, Maul hurried towards a side entrance, pausing when he heard the Emperor summon an attendant and ordered a summons for Cad Bane.

Maul narrowed his eyes and sneered. _What the hell does Master want with that pathetic hunter?_

* * *

 

“So tell me about this… Pale Man,” Anakin said, looking back over his shoulder at Ahsoka as Twilight carried them down the road to the east. “I think we left off at you trying to shoot the wolf who had just saved your life from that murderous farmer.”

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Why do you keep harping on that? I was terrified! I couldn’t find you and what was to stop the wolf from coming after me next? Any sane person would have done the same!”

“Any sane person wouldn’t have tried to pick my pocket under the nose of Lord Maul, the head of the Imperial Sith Guard,” Anakin pointed out with a smile. “So… start talking, Snips.”

“Fine,” Ahsoka groaned and tried to ignore the panic and terror her memories of the previous night’s encounter. “I was going to take the shot when the Pale Man appeared from nowhere.”

“What did he look like?” Anakin asked, his voice noncommittal as he kept his gaze focused on the road ahead of them.

Resting her head against the middle of Anakin’s back, Ahsoka struggled to pull out details of her memories of the Pale Man, shaking her head when she could only remember a few things. “He was handsome, and pale like a noble, with blue eyes like a winter’s storm. And when he spoke, he sounded like a scholar or prince. He sounded far too highborn to be in the woods like us.”

“He spoke to you?” He tried to look back at her over his shoulder. “What did he say?”

“I asked him if I was dreaming and he said I was,” Ahsoka mumbled, suddenly embarrassed and worried the General might think she was making it all up. “I’m not lying! You have to believe me! This really happened!”

“I believe you, Ahsoka,” Anakin replied, turning back to the road before them. “Did he say what his name was?”

“No,” she muttered. “If he had I wouldn’t have to call him the Pale Man, now would I?”

Anakin chuckled. “Well… if you see him again, make sure you ask for his name.”

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. “Right. Sure. Let’s all make fun of the crazy and terrified girl who was almost eaten to death by a wolf and then hallucinated some strange noble guy. Ha ha! Very funny.”

“No one is laughing at you, Ahsoka,” Anakin grunted, frowning up at the sky. He pulled his whistle out of the neck of his jerkin and gave two sharp blasts. “I think we should consider making camp for the evening.”

The eagle let out a soft cry as he came in for a landing on Anakin’s arm. With a simple shift in the reins, Anakin led them all into the forest to find a small clearing in the trees and bed down for the evening.

After laying out a bedroll for Ahsoka and himself, Anakin unsaddled Twilight and tied the horse up, close to some underbrush and grass for it to nibble on. Once that was done he told Ahsoka to gather some wood for the fire while he went off to find them something to eat.

The eagle sat on a low-hanging branch and groomed his feathers.

“I’m starting to wonder if it was such a good idea to stick around with him, Great Lady,” Ahsoka grumbled as she made quick work of the tinder they would need to start the fire. She left a pile of dry leaves, some moss and tiny twigs that Skywalker could ignite with some sparks from his flint. The kindling and the fuelwood would take a bit longer to gather up and break into smaller, more manageable pieces.

After a half hour or so, Ahsoka had amassed another small pile of kindling and enough long branches to make a good base for the fire. Unfortunately the branches were too thick, nearly as big around as her forearm, for her to break with her hands. She frowned at her selection of wood and then looked back at Skywalker’s saddle, disappointed to see no ax there.

But there was a sword there.

Twilight was quietly chewing through the bush as Ahsoka padded over to the saddle. “Don’t mind me, old boy. I’m just borrowing it. I promise I’ll have it back in no time.”

The horse did not seem to care, stomping his back hoof and flicking his tail up and around. He lowered his head back to his mutilated dinner bush and left her to her pilfering.

The sword was bundled up with the saddle under Anakin’s saddle bags, wrapped up in black fabric. Careful not to disturb any of the rest of the General’s belongings, Ahsoka reached in to gently pull the blade loose from its wrappings, revealing a scabbard covered in dove grey leather and tipped with silver filagree. The guard was simple but well made and the grip was wrapped in the same grey leather, stained charcoal from use and aging. There was a small pommel at the end with the same wings and star symbol that she had seen on Anakin’s pin.

Twilight let out a snort and a loud stomp of his hooves and Ahsoka nearly jumped out of her skin. “By the Great Lady! You scared me!”

The horse flicked his tail and Ahsoka got the hint to back off, carrying the blade over to her pile of proto-firewood. She carefully grasped the sword by two hands and pulled it free, eager to see the beautiful and mysterious blade crafted from light and shadow.

The bladed slipped free with a sigh and the eagle let out a soft noise.

Ahsoka stood up, raising the blade up with her hands as if she were going to face off against an enemy. She titled the blade from side to side, marveling at the way it caught the light, the way the edges seemed to glow in the dappled shadows of the forest. It felt lighter than she imagined and she gave it a few imaginary slashes and thrusts, smiling as her eyes glowed with delight.

This was a true warrior’s blade, blue-white and pure. It radiated peace and solemn serenity, making her feel grounded and centered, as if she had roots that grew down into the heart of the world, giving her strength and connecting to every living thing. It was a part of her and she a part of it.

“Wow!” Ahsoka gasped, turning the sword so she could see the broad sides of it. “I don’t remember it being blue before. Maybe it was the time of day? This is the same sword, isn’t it?”

The horse had no answer for her and Ahsoka raised the sword over her head and brought it down with a satisfying swoosh, neatly cleaving a branch in two. The sword was so sharp, Ahsoka knew she would make short work of the fuelwood. She laid the blade down on the ground and piled up more of the thicker branches before picking up the faintly glowing blue-throated sword and raising it up over her head to bring it down again.

Or at least she tried to, letting out a shriek of surprise when Anakin appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the sword from her hand. “This sword does not belong to you! You have no right to take it!”

“Hey! You can’t just sneak up on people chopping firewood like that!” Ahsoka protested, her momentary terror giving way to anger. “I could have killed you! It would have been an accident but you’d still be dead!”

“You were using this to chop firewood?” Anakin gaped at her, the expression on his face one of absolute affront and horror. Clearly her firewood was far more insulting than she realized. “This blade has never known defeat, not in training, not in battle. Until now.”

The eagle let out soft series of cries, shivering a little.

“I’m sorry! What did you expect me to do? Break the branches with my bare hands?” Ahsoka gestured to the branches that were never going to become logs at this rate. “Do you have an ax or a something a little less precious that I could borrow?”

Anakin frowned, his blue eyes narrowed as he walked over to his pack and rummaged around. He pulled out a small ax, no more than a hatchet, and handed it over to Ahsoka who gave him the fakest smile in her arsenal. “You’re too kind.”

Skywalker walked over to a fallen log and sat there, frowning over the blade and making sure there was no permanent damage while Ahsoka made short work of the fuelwood.

“That’s Ilum steel right?” Ahsoka finally asked, peering up from her neat and orderly pile of firewood. “ I saw it before when you fought that crazy Zabrak.”

“This blade isn’t mine,” Anakin said, holding the blue blade up and giving it a few turns in his hands before he placed it gently across his lap. “You ask a lot of questions for a wanted criminal.”

“I like to stay informed,” Ahsoka shrugged. “So… if it’s not yours, why do you have it?”

“I’m… holding on to it,” he replied, looking down at the weapon, his black gloved fingers gently, tenderly stroking the spine of the sword. “I’ve promised to return it some day.”

“So that’s not yours?” Ahsoka frowned, her arms folded against her waist.

“No,” Anakin scowled standing up and walking back to the grey scabbard and sheathing the blue blade.

It was then she noticed the black sword at his side, decorated in subtle pieces of gold and red. Anakin unsheathed his weapon and held it up, scowling at the same shifting patterns of light and darkness that had so mesmerized Ahsoka at their fight at the inn. The blade did not seem to speak to her this time but she could still _feel_ its power.

This blade was dangerous and its owner even more so.

“This is my sword,” Anakin said, holding it out and glaring down its deadly edges.

Ahsoka nodded, sensing there was more going on here than Anakin was letting on. “So… when are you going to return the other blade?”

“When I’ve finished my quest,” Anakin informed her with a smile that was so confident it bordered on arrogance.

“What’s your quest?”

Anakin glanced down at his blade and murmured, “I must kill a man.”

“Oh,” Ahsoka replied, pursing her lips and looking to the side. “I see. Does this walking corpse have a name?”

Anakin looked up at Ahsoka from beneath his brow and for a moment she could have sworn his eyes were the yellow of a predator’s as he sneered, “His Grace, the Emperor Palpatine.”

For a moment, Ahsoka was too shocked to speak or move. Her jaw hung open as she gazed at Anakin’s smiling nonchalance at his admission of planned treason and murder. When sense returned to her limbs and to her mind, she made the decision to leave Skywalker then and there.

There was such a thing as too crazy.

“Right. Well then you have a lot to do and I have really taken up far too much of your time already,” Ahsoka smiled, shifting slowly towards the edge of their clearing and a path back to the rode. “I wish you the best of luck and I hope our paths cross again someday.”

_Sweet Lady, protect me!_ Ahsoka prayed as she kept her eye on the former Jedi knight sitting quietly.

“I need your help to get me into the Imperial Palace, Ahsoka,” Anakin murmured, his voice low and insistent. “You’re the only one who has ever escaped from the Black Hole and lived.”

“Not for the life of my mother, even if I knew who she was,” Ahsoka retorted, waving her hands in front of her in a decisive dismissal. “I got lucky! I fell down a hole and followed my nose! And even if I could find my way back there is no way you and those big shoulders of yours are going to fit through the hole!”

“I have waited almost five years for a the Force to give me a sign,” Anakin insisted, holding a hand to his chest. “Five years, Ahsoka! And you just fell into my lap! This was meant to be. You can’t deny that. You are my guiding angel, Snips! I need your help.”

“Me?” Ahsoka guffawed, waving him off as she shook her head. “The truth is I talk to the Great Lady all the time and, no offense, but she never mentioned you, Skyguy.”

Anakin looked a bit bemused at that. “No?”

“There are strange forces at work in your life,” Ahsoka said, almost to the edge of the forest. “Magical ones that surround you. I don't understand them, and they frighten me. I owe you my life and the truth is I can never repay you. I’m just a thief. But you, you’re a Jedi and I know you won’t kill me for being what I am. And I would rather be a cowardly thief then go back to the Imperial City and the Black Hole.”

Her point made, Ahsoka turned away from Anakin and walked into the forest.

The blade flew through the air with a faint hiss and embedded itself in the trunk of a tree not more than a foot away from Ahsoka’s head, right at her eye level. The sword was so close she could see herself in the twisted reflections, bending and warping as the hilt of the blade waved back and forth from the force of the throw.

Ahsoka turned towards Anakin, her eyes round with shock and perhaps a bit of fear. She reached out timidly to still the blade still embedded deep in the tree.

Skywalker’s smile was bland and vaguely threatening as he looked at her from the log.

It was clear that Ahsoka was not going to be able to blithely walk away.

Mumbling, Ahsoka turned away from the sword in the tree. “I guess I’ll get started on that fire.”

* * *

 

Ahsoka fell asleep that night shortly before sunset, overcome by a wave of exhaustion and hunger. Anakin promised her he would have something for to eat if she woke back up and if not it would be waiting for her come the morning.

“It better be… something good,” Ahsoka yawned as she rolled into a comfortable ball against the root of a tree. She had always been able to fall asleep just about anywhere and the forest was no exception. The animals scurrying about and the quiet rustling of the trees overhead all served as her guards. She could _feel_ the business-as-usual hustle and bustle of the woods and it helped her drift off into an exhausted sleep without dreams.

Sadly her stomach was not willing to wait until the next morning and its protesting slowly drew Ahsoka out of her deep sleep later in the night. She tossed and turned for a little bit, trying to ignore the heat and light of the fire, trying to burrow back into the comforting oblivion of sleep.

She tried to empty her mind and focus on her breathing like Plo Koon taught her and it worked well enough until she sensed a shadowy presence looming over her.

Ahsoka struck at it with one of her knives she always kept under her pillow. “Get away from me! Skyguy! Help! Help!”

The shadowy presence let out a grunt and a hiss before Ahsoka found her arms locked and twisted away from her body in a hold that was a heartbeat away from a painful shoulder dislocation.

“Sweet Force, child! I mean you no harm!” The Pale Man’s familiar voice filtered through the haze of sleep and the pulse-pounding confusion of her adrenaline surge. Ahsoka twisted, trying to see if it was in fact the same man when her nerves send out a warning twinge. “Drop the knife, or knives if you have more, and I shall release you, my dear.”

Ahsoka grumbled to herself as she dropped her weapon to the ground. “There. Can you let me go now?”

“Happily,” the Pale Man said, his hands vanishing from her arms and his presence retreating back to the other side of the fire pit. Ahsoka rubbed at her shoulder for a minute before she turned around to face the mysterious man from the night before.

“So it is you,” Ahsoka said, her eyes narrowed as she tried to memorize every detail about him in case he slipped away before Anakin, who was once again nowhere to be found, returned from hunting. “Why are you following us?”

The Pale Man laughed at her blunt opening. “And good evening to you too, Ahsoka Tano. How lovely to see you again. I am relieved to see that the Neimoidian’s wife did not try to avenge her husband’s death upon your person.”

Ahsoka blinked and looked away for a moment, completely confused. “I… uhm… Good evening? Sir… Pale Man? I’m glad that man-eating wolf didn’t kill you?”

This made the Pale Man laugh, a warm sound that seemed to defuse the tension and anxiety from her rude awakening. The firelight made his blue eyes almost green and he gave her a small but genuine smile. “Pale Man? Is that what you’ve named me?”

“I wouldn’t have to if you would just tell me what your name is,” Ahsoka pointed out, her arms crossed. “And where is Skyguy? Don’t tell me he’s still out hunting.”

“Skyguy?” The Pale Man asked, his head canted to the side. “Is that what you call him?”

“Anakin? Yeah,” Ahsoka nodded, looking down at her hands. “You’re following us, aren’t you?”

The Pale Man chuckled, picking up a small metal plate that had some slices of bread, some cheese and salted meat on it. “Anakin left this for you and, yes, I am.”

“I knew it!” Ahsoka grinned, tossing her head back as she took the plate of food. “Thanks. So why are you following us?”

The Pale Man did not answer her because his gaze was turned towards the darkness of the forest, when she looked up from the plate of food. “Are you ignoring me? That’s a little rude, don’t you think?”

“I’m sorry, young one,” the Pale Man said, turning his gaze back to Ahsoka. “Forgive my lapse of manners. How are you finding your travels with General Skywalker?”

“Okay, I guess,” Ahsoka mused, pursing her lip and taking a cup of sweet wine from the man dressed in charcoal grey linen shirt and what looked a dark slate wrap around his shoulders. “Do you make it a habit of not answering people’s questions?”

“Yes, actually,” The Pale Man chuckled, taking his own sip of wine from Anakin’s wine sack. “Is he taking good care of you?”

“Oh he’s taking great care of me,” Ahsoka rolled her eyes and bit into another little sandwich of cheese and beef. “He’s a slave driver is what he is! ‘Snips! Saddle the horse!’ ‘Snips! Fetch the fire for the firewood!’ ‘Don’t talk back!’ and the here’s the kicker! He wants me to help him sneak back into the Imperial Palace and the Black Hole!”

The Pale Man blinked at her tirade against Anakin, his expression neutral until she came to the end and then his brows knit together into a frown. “Does he? He said this to you? This isn’t something you’ve just sensed from him?”

“Sensed?” Ahsoka echoed, confused. “No, he told me himself! And then when I told him that there was no way I was going to try and sneak him back into that hell hole he threw his sword at me! He could have killed me!”

“He did what?” The Pale Man gasped, looking stunned but not at all surprised. Ahsoka watched in bemused confusion as the man in front of her shook his head and lowered it into his hand with a groan. “Oh Anakin, really? How could you?”

Ahsoka leaned forward, her hands wrapped around her wine cup. “So you agree? His plan to kill the Emperor is totally crazy, right?”

The Pale Man sat up from his disappointed crumple and looked over at Ahsoka and she felt a shiver run down her back at how face his countenance had changed from warm camaraderie to ice cold ruthlessness. “No. I do not. Finish your meal, Ahsoka, and then go back to sleep.”

Ahsoka barely noticed the Pale Man waving his fingers before a wave of sleepy exhaustion washed through her. She make short work of what was left of her dinner and when that was done she curled back up in her bedroll and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Once Ahsoka was asleep, the Pale Man stood up and walked over to her, dropping a warmer blanket over her small frame before he retreated back to his side of the fire. He pulled out a worn and beaten leather journal and opened it. He flipped through the pages, frowning at page after page of identical handwriting, neat and fluid. When he could not find an entry written in a different hand in the most recent entries he let out a long, heavy sigh, shaking his head.

Reaching into Anakin’s saddle bag he pulled out a small pouch that contained a bottle of ink, a nib and a nib holder. He placed the journal on a flat piece of stiff bark and flipped to a blank page. After attaching the ink nib to the holder, he dipped the nib in the ink and started to write.

_My dear heart,_

_I am relieved to hear that you are well and that you survived the last night’s unpleasantness. Your travelling companion is quite sharp and has already deduced that I am following you both. I suppose it will only be a matter of time before she learns of our secret._

_Of course, she is cheating a bit, even if she does not realize it._

_Ahsoka is strong in the Force. I’m sure you have noticed it. She’s wild and untamed but talented. I can only imagine that she’s been using it subconsciously all this time. It no doubt aided her escape from the Black Hole and the palace._

_She told me of your plan, my love. She thinks it is quite insane and while I would normally be inclined to agree with her, my desire for vengeance is as great as yours. I might have scared her with my honesty. I don’t know. I sent her to bed after that. Please do not think ill of me, Anakin. I won’t do it again but by Yoda’s beard she asks a great many questions!_

_I know the masters taught us to let go of our selfish desires (Ha!) but I confess I yearn to run my blade through Palpatine’s heart as well. I had thought myself beyond that but… Every night seems to grow longer and longer without you by my side. I know I should be patient and trust in the Force but…_

_It would be easier if you would write to me. I do not understand why you do not or what inspires you to do so on the rare occasion you do take pen to paper.  Please, it has been so long, Anakin._

_I miss you so much. Your laughter, your smile, those ridiculous stunts you would pull from the top beam of the barn into the pile of hay in the stables. I miss your voice and the way you would say my name when we were together._

_I miss your touch most of all. The curse has taken away the warmth in my world, leaving it cold and dark. There are times I think I imagined it all, that none of it ever happened and I have always lived like this. That all our whispered promises where just the ephemeral imaginings of a lonely spirit._

_If you do not object, I shall tell Ahsoka my name when next she catches me sneaking about. Which I’m certain will be the next day or so. Since you found her, I feel it is only fair that you do the lion’s share of the explaining._

_Dawn is growing nearer and I think I shall stretch my legs a bit before I retire._

_Never forget that I love you. That you are not alone. I am with you, always._

_All my love,_

_Obi-Wan_

And with his daily missive written, the Pale Man tucked the book away and stood up, walking into the forest to the distant sound of a wolf’s cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Thank you for all the lovely comments and kudos! I promise I will respond to them all! I hope you enjoy this chapter and as always, you can follow me on tumblr at [FireflyFish.](http://fireflyfish.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Thanks for reading and T-minus four days to Rogue One! WOOHOOO!


	4. The Pale Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When confronted with Anakin's grim determination to commit treason and murder the Emperor, Ahsoka decides to escape while she still can. Unfortunately for her, Anakin does not take kindly to her attempts to flee and just when things can't seem to get any worse, rescue comes for Ahsoka from an unlikely place.
> 
> But who is the Pale Man really? What secret is he hiding and what is his connection to Anakin Skywalker? And why is he following them?

When Ahsoka awoke the next morning, Anakin was back, lounging against the tree, flipping through a worn, leather journal and his gaze focused intently on the pages. She watched him as the haze of sleep cleared from her mind, noting how his fingertips danced over the pages, as if he both wanted to and was afraid to touch them.

“What’s in the book?” Ahsoka yawned as she pushed herself upright.

Anakin closed the journal with a snap and looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t you think it’s a little early to be so nosy, Snips?”

Ahsoka grinned back at him over her shoulder. “Nope. So what’s in the book?”

“None of your business,” Anakin grumbled and pushed himself upright, walking over to pack and wrenching open a saddle bag before carefully placing the item in a metal canister. “How did you sleep? You were out cold by the time I got back.”

Rolling her eyes, Ahsoka folded her arms over her chest. “Yeah, about that, when exactly _did_ you come back because you weren’t here when the Pale Man showed up. Again.”

“You saw him again?” Anakin asked. “What did he say?”

“He said, and I quote, that he is following us!” Ahsoka gestured wildly. “That’s not normal! Why haven’t we seen him on the road? Why is he following us? Why won’t he tell me what his name is? Where the hell were you?”

The eagle, who had been cleaning its feathers on a nearby branch, let out an agitated series of shrieks and cries, flapping its massive wings and trying to take flight into the sky. Unfortunately, Anakin had tied it to its perch to prevent just such an event from happening and the poor creature ended up getting tangled in the stays, shrieking indignantly at its predicament.

“Calm down, Snips!” Anakin grunted as he tried to find a way past the razor-sharp claws and talons. “You’re going to upset him!”

“Him?” Ahsoka gasped, offended. “What about me?”

Anakin ignored her for the next few minutes as he worked with surprising grace and gentleness to bring the angry eagle under control. Once the shrieks had ceased, replaced by mournful soft sounds, he carefully pulled out a hood and covered the bird’s head, stroking its feathered breast and whispering softly. “There… that’s better. See? You’re safe and sound. Ahsoka didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I am not apologizing to that thing,” Ahsoka muttered.

Anakin glowered at her but instead of making a harsh retort, he pointed to the fire where a roasted rabbit was cooling over the embers. “There’s breakfast. Hurry up and eat while I pack up camp.”

Unable to resist the grumbling of her stomach, and perhaps regretting her earlier snappish behavior, Ahsoka ate her breakfast quietly, pulling meat off the bone and trying to ignore the eagle on the low-hanging branch.

What was she going to do now?

There was no way in all the Sith hells she was going to help Skyguy try and sneak into the Imperial Palace. Absolutely no way. She was not a warrior or a knight or whatever it was that the Pale Man was, besides polite and creepy. Ahsoka cared about one thing and one thing only: her own skin, and being a part of an assassination attempt on the Emperor was a one-way ticket to a beheading.

But she couldn’t just run away either, not with the Pale Man following them from wherever it was that he was hiding out. Anakin hadn’t seem that surprised to hear about him, which made Ahsoka think they were working together somehow. But if that was the case then why weren’t they traveling together? Where was the Pale Man’s horse? Why had he still not told Ahsoka what his name was?

“Ugh! Stupid kriffing Skyguy!” Ahsoka grunted, tossing a rabbit bone into the fire.

The eagle let out a faint cry as if the bird was agreeing with her.

“I don’t suppose you know who the Pale Man is, do you?” Ahsoka asked the eagle, whose head moved in quick jerking motions as it listened to the world outside its hood. Shaking her head, she turned away. “Never mind. Why am I even talking to you?”

Once Ahsoka was done with her breakfast she was roped into helping Anakin saddle Twilight, or more accurately, she stood still and let the horse nuzzle against her, searching for treats while Anakin lectured on the proper way to saddle his horse.

“And you have to be careful,” Anakin finished with a good tug. “Twilight likes to trick you. So always make sure the girth is tight against his belly.”

Ahsoka rolled her eyes but nodded all the same. She had already decided that she was going to make her escape later and now it was just a matter of luring Anakin into a false sense of complacency.

All she had to do was wait for her moment.

* * *

 

Unfortunately for Ahsoka, her moment never came.

They made their way back to the Eastern Road, the eagle soaring overhead as they traveled. Ahsoka kept her eyes peeled for occasions to break free but none came.

The Eastern Road had once been a busy and bustling thoroughfare that ran straight from the City of the Dawn to the Imperial capital in the west. All manner of goods and trades had flowed from one city to the other and all of the towns and villages along the way had profited from the travel of pilgrims, merchants and the like.

But now, the road seemed almost deserted, as if the great highway to the Dawn was just as cursed as the city it once led to. The rolling foothills to the north and the green plains to the south seemed just as abandoned as the sun moved lazily overhead. In another time or place there might have been farmers out trying to work the fields but the tall, lazy grass indicated how little care this area recieved.

“I can't believe how empty it is,” Ahsoka murmured as they cleared the top of a hill and came across the sad remains of an abandoned village. “Where did all the people go?”

“When the Empire betrayed the Jedi and laid siege to the City of the Dawn, they laid waste to any town that so much as thought of supporting them,” Anakin all but snarled as they quietly rode through what would have been the town square. “Smart towns changed their colors overnight, slapping red and black paint on everything. These people… well, they weren't so smart.”

Ahsoka made out a clutch of houses and buildings, or what remained of them. Now they were just empty spaces filled with the wild grasses and flowers native to the area. Other parts of buildings still standing were scorched and battered. Glass windows were broken, weeds growing up between the shards. The eagle landed on the peek of a roof, letting out a shriek as Anakin brought Twilight to a stop.

“What happened here?” Ahsoka asked, leaning a little closer to the general despite her plan to ditch him at the first opportune moment. There was something unsettling about this village, something empty and aching with pain. Ahsoka couldn’t be sure but she almost felt like she could hear screaming, could hear the roar of a fire burning out of control. She shivered and focused on the back of Anakin’s black jerkin.

Anakin bowed his head, spitting out each word with venom. “They tried to hide a Jedi Knight and the Empire punished them for their compassion.”

A dozen different questions popped into Ahsoka’s head at once but she didn’t give voice to them. There was something so bitter about the man in front of her, something sharp and angry, laced with self-loathing.

Holding out his arm and giving a command to the eagle, Anakin nudged Twilight forward and they left the charred village behind them.

* * *

 

Ahsoka’s chance came when they were making camp and, as usual, she was assigned to gather the firewood while Anakin unsaddled Twilight. She gave him a cheerful nod and started picking her way into the woods, hoping that he wouldn’t notice her angling back in the direction of the Eastern Road.

The forest was starting to change its with the greens growing darker and shifting to the warm brown tones that would hint at the coming gold and vermillion of fall. The brush was knee-high but still green with life from late summer and it was easy to creep through the brush without making too much noise to attract Anakin’s attention.

Carefully placing one foot in front of the other, Ahsoka moved through the woods with all of the silence and grace she possessed as a thief. Waiting for the ambient noise of the forest to cover her escape, she slipped past trees and climbed over logs until she was out of sight of the camp and then even a little further as she followed her montrals back towards the wide open space of the Eastern Road.

Once she was convinced she was safe, Ahsoka bolted, running as fast as her legs would carry her through the woods and toward the road.  

Her heart was pounding in her chest as she saw the golden rays of the dying sun breaking through the trees, silently urging her legs to go faster, to keep up the pace necessary to put some space between her and the crazy guy back somewhere behind her.

And she might have been successful if she had been quieter just a bit longer but somehow, some way, Anakin heard her and when the sound of hooves pounding through the forest hit her montrals, Ahsoka let out a cry of dismay and tried to vault herself into a tree.

She would have no luck there either.

“Oh no you don’t!” Anakin growled as he grabbed Ahsoka by the back of her jacket and hauled down her down from the tree and for the second time in three days, she found herself flung over Anakin’s lap as he turned Twilight around and rode back to camp with her. “I saved your life. You owe me, little one! You’re not going anywhere, do you hear me?”

Deciding that she had run out of options, Ahsoka let out a scream, crying for help, that she was being kidnapped, that Anakin was a murderer, anything she could think of to bring someone, anyone to her aid.

“Scream all you want,” Anakin grunted as he swung himself off the horse and pulled Ahsoka down to the ground. “Nobody is going to hear you and you’re just going to make Twilight upset.”

“I am NOT helping you murder the Emperor!” Ahsoka shouted, trying to struggle against Anakin’s grip but she found that her arms and hands were no longer her own, seemingly bound up in invisible ropes that were wrapped around her waist as well. “Let me go! You can’t do this to me! You’re a Jedi Knight!”

“Not any more!” Anakin shot back, reaching into his pack to pull out a length of rope. “This is your own fault, Snips. I don’t like doing this but you leave me no choice.”

“You always have a choice!” Ahsoka retorted, trying to reach out with her legs, struggling to break through whatever magic the former Jedi knight had placed on her torso and limbs. “You don’t have to do this! Just let me go! I won’t tell anybody! I swear! Please!”

After tying Ahsoka up to a tree so that she was sitting on the ground, her hands behind the tree trunk and the knots sealed with a bit of the Force, Anakin took a step back. “I’m sorry, Ahsoka. I really am but… You don’t understand. I have to do this. I have to kill the Emperor and you’re the only one in this whole world who can help me. I… I won’t ask you to forgive me. No one should ever forgive me for what I’ve done.”

“What about the Pale Man?” Ahsoka asked, panic starting to rise up from her gut as the sun crept lower and lower against the horizon and she was left with the very real possibility of being tied up alone in the forest. She struggled, trying to pull away from the ropes but nothing she did seemed to work as Anakin pulled out a blanket and tucked it in around her.

“That should keep you warm,” Anakin mumbled, not making eye contact with her. “And… don’t worry about the Pale Man. He won’t hurt you.”

“Says you!” Ahsoka shot back, her blood boiling. “The kidnapping, Emperor-murdering, former Jedi Knight! You’re no better than that Sith back at the inn!”

Anakin stood up and looked down at his hands, frowning at them as if they held the answer to his predicament. Shaking his head, he glanced back at Ahsoka, his lips drawn into a line. “You’re right. I’m not but I can’t risk you running away. Not with Maul and his men searching for us. Now, good night, Ahsoka.”

The former Jedi Knight waved his hand in front of Ahsoka’s face and she felt a sudden wave of bone-deep exhaustion flood through her. She struggled to keep her eyes open even as her head dipped forward under the weight of her desire to sleep.

_NO! He’s using the Ashala or whatever hell it’s called on me! I am not giving into him!_

Ahsoka shook her head, losing some of the compulsion to sleep as she glared up at Anakin, her lips pulled into a snarl. “I am not going to fall for your Jedi trick!”

Anakin frowned at Ahsoka, surprised, and took another step back toward her, his right hand splayed outward as he spoke again, his voice laced with power. “Good _night_ , Ahsoka. You _will_ sleep now.”

In spite of her best attempts to resist the Force, Ahsoka found it too difficult to stay awake further and she closed her eyes, dropping into a deep and heavy sleep.

Anakin picked up a saddle bag and walked over to the low-hanging branch where his eagle was sleeping, his head tucked up under his wing. “Come on, you. It’s almost sunset and I imagine you’re starving.”

Anakin gazed back at Ahsoka and bowed his head, shame and guilt filling his spirit as he walked away. “I think she might be right. I am no better than Maul.”

The eagle let out a short sharp shriek that seemed to imply the opposite and Anakin smiled at him, brushing a gloved finger down the bird’s breast. “I think you might be biased, my friend.”

* * *

 

Ahsoka woke to the sound of feet rustling through the underbrush and a muttered curse in a refined accent so completely incongruous to the setting it almost made her burst into laughter.

And then Ahsoka remembered she was tied up to a tree by a lunatic former Jedi Knight and her laughter died on her tongue.

The skittering through the brush came again, as well as a large and loud groan of “Damn it, Anakin!”

Ahsoka sat up a little, wincing as her shoulders and neck protested being forced into a strange and foreign position for so long. She tried to peer around her shoulder, to catch a sight of the owner of the voice grumbling its way through the dark of the forest.

There was another rattle of dried leaves rustling and crunching before a soft thump and a grunt of triumph. “At last!”

“Hello?” Ahsoka called out into the darkness, hoping against hope that the voice she heard belonged to the Pale Man and he could help free her from this mess she found herself in. “Hello?!”

There was another grunt of recognition and a faint murmur of “Ahsoka?” followed almost immediately by a sharp curse in a language she didn’t understand.

“What on earth are you doing, Ahsoka?” the Pale Man asked as he picked his way through the underbrush, standing in front of Ahsoka like a tall, grey wraith conjured out of a fable.

“What am I doing over here?” Ahsoka started to fume and then realized she needed to stay calm if she wanted to get the Pale Man’s help. She took a deep breath and gave him her best sweet, innocent moppet face. “Well… I’ve been tied up to a tree.”

“What?” the Pale Man gasped, crouching in front of her and gently touching her forehead with two fingers. A warm shiver of something bright and soothing rushed through Ahsoka’s veins, as if someone had poured liquid sunlight over her. “You don’t seem injured. Who tied you up?”

“Who do you think?” Ahsoka snorted, her mouth pulled into a sneer. “General Skyguy tied me up when I told him I wouldn’t help him attempt to assassinate the Emperor.”

“He did what?!” The Pale Man gasped in shock as he took in Ahsoka’s predicament. Letting out a long sigh, he clicked his tongue as he walked around Ahsoka to where her hands were bound behind the tree. “I am terribly sorry, my dear. He had no right to do that. Let me set you free.”

“Thank you!” Ahsoka gasped, making sure she put an extra dollop of sweetness in her voice. If everything went well, she would sneak away while the Pale Man wasn’t watching and there would be no way Anakin could find her in the dark like this. Her montrals would give her an advantage in the low light, allowing her to move faster and with greater surety than a thin-blood like Anakin, even if he had the Ashla.

“This was truly uncalled for,” the Pale Man grunted as he cut through the last bit of rope. “I hope you can forgive him. He… he has a good heart under all of those bad decisions he’s made.”

Ahsoka happily reclaimed ownership of her hands, groaning in relief as she rolled her shoulders forward and pulled the bits of rope off of her wrists. She peered around to see if she could dart away now while the Pale Man was babbling on about how Anakin wasn’t a bad person even though he had basically kidnapped Ahsoka twice and how she needed to give him a second chance and…

“I am standing right here, Ahsoka,” the Pale Man chuckled, reaching down to squeeze her shoulder. “You’re going to have to make your escapes with a bit more care and forethought than bolting right in front of me.”

Ahsoka glanced up at the Pale Man, who held out his hand to her, and let out a puff of resignation. Taking his hand, she realized this was going to take more work than she first thought.

Pulling her upright, the Pale Man froze at the sound of a distant wolf cry. His brows knit together and he closed his eyes for a moment. “I think we should return to the fire, don’t you?”

“Not until you tell me who you are and why you are following him,” Ahsoka said, pulling her hand back to her chest, her arms folded there against the kindness in the Pale Man’s voice. “I am not moving from this spot until you tell me your name.”

Turning back to Ahsoka, the Pale Man smiled in a way that was too sharp with eyes too bright. “Obi-Wan Kenobi. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Ahsoka blinked and watched Obi-Wan take her right hand and bow over it in a spot-on imitation of a noble or a courtier who she might have pickpocketed in another life. Standing up, he released her hand and shifted his body to gesture back toward a cheerful campfire that had been started under the arch of a nearby tree. “Would you care to join me? It’s just more dried meat and cheese. Sadly, I lost our evening meal when I discovered your unfortunate circumstance.”

“Of course, I had assumed that you and, how do you call him? General Skyguy? Had parted ways which is why I did not search for you earlier. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

Ahsoka followed Obi-Wan, who navigated through the dark with as much ease as she did without the aid of montrals. She wondered if Obi-Wan was a Jedi Knight too and if he was, was that why he was following Anakin around? Is that why he said he wanted kill the Emperor as well the night before?

Weren’t Jedi Knights supposed to be peacekeepers?

Obi-Wan was making polite small talk about the forest, the seasons and the changing weather as he gestured to a small log for Ahsoka to sit on. The root of the tree formed a small circular depression, giving a bit of shelter from the elements as well as hiding the campfire from prying eyes. He shook out the blanket she had been wrapped in earlier and folded into a neat square before tucking it away in Anakin’s saddle bags.

Ahsoka interrupted a bit of chatter about Anakin’s poor selection of travel food with a blunt question. “Where are your things? Why are you always rummaging around in Anakin’s things?”

Obi-Wan was a bit startled at her question and gave up on whatever he had been talking about earlier. He moved back to the fire and sat down opposite of Ahsoka, who could make out the faintest bit of copper in the Pale Man’s hair, thanks to the firelight.

“What has Anakin told you? About me or himself?” Obi-Wan asked, his legs crossed in front of him and his hands folded in his lap. His face betrayed no emotion, no flicker of thought or feeling, just a mask of silent curiosity.

Ahsoka frowned as she tried to list everything she could recall. “He said that he was a Jedi Knight, but he’s not anymore. That Sith called him General Skywalker and implied that Anakin couldn’t come near the Imperial City. He said he raised Twilight from when he was a colt and he’s carrying a second sword for someone, which means he has two Ilum steel swords! And he said you weren’t going to hurt me.”

Obi-Wan took a moment to process everything Ahsoka said and then sat back against a tree trunk. “And that’s all he’s told you?”

Ahsoka nodded, accepting a stick of dried meat and a hunk of cheese from Obi-Wan. “Yeah. Why? Is there something I’m missing?”

Shaking his head, Obi-Wan let out a long breath. “No, no. I’m not surprised. I… Oh, Anakin. I specifically told him to explain all of this to you but clearly he would rather threaten you into obedience. I blame our former master. Anakin was a bit of a troublemaker back in the Temple and he came to learn that it was easier to ask for forgiveness than wait for permission.”

“So… you’re a former Jedi Knight, too?” Ahsoka guessed, accepting a cup of sweet wine from Obi-Wan as she narrowed her eyes at him. “Is that other sword yours?”

“I _am_ a Jedi Knight. One of the last I’m afraid, if not _the_ last. Anakin resigned from the Order when he accepted a title and position within the Grand Imperial Army,” Obi-Wan corrected her gently.

“And that’s why that man, Maul, called him General Skywalker,” she theorized, in between sips of her wine.

“You saw Maul?” Obi-Wan stared at Ahsoka as if she had just informed him that a rabid gundark was standing right behind him. “Red skin with black tattoos and more horns than a devil should have any right to?”

Ahsoka nodded. “Yeah. He was at the same inn where I… uhm… where Skyguy first… erm…”

Obi-Wan arched an eyebrow. “Where you tried to steal from Anakin?”

“How did you know?” she gasped, more surprised than she was willing to admit. “I didn’t know he was some weird Jedi! He seemed rich and just crazy enough that maybe he wouldn’t mind if I lightened his pocket!”

Ahsoka felt a little sheepish as Obi-Wan’s eyebrow twitched further upward. “Do you routinely make it a habit of pickpocketing men who look like they would happily murder you if you looked at them funny?”

Pursing her lips, she turned away, digging the toe of her boot into the ground. “No. But I was running from the Empire and I needed gold to get the City of the Dawn because some crazy thick-blood kept nattering on about the Ashala or Ashla or whatever! And why am I telling you all of this? You’re supposed to be giving ME the answers!”

“Ahhh….” Obi-Wan nodded, his lips quirked in a half-grin, colored in orange and gold from the fire. “First of all, it’s called the Force, not the Ashala, and please do not use the term Ashla. That name is sacred to Jedi.”

Ahsoka sat and mutely listened to Obi-Wan’s word, drawn into his smiling eyes and his lilting accent. She felt like she could listen to him explain how rain falls out of the sky and find it the most fascinating tale ever told. It reminded her of Plo Koon and the fairy tales he would tell her and her little siblings back at the Orphanage. It seemed silly to think of it now but still, the similarity was uncanny.

“Second of all, that pull you felt, to go to the east and to the City of the Dawn, or rather what’s left of it?” Obi-Wan continued. “That is the Force calling to you, little one. You are strong in the Force, I can tell just from sitting here next to you. The Temple, if any of it is still standing, is calling out to you, a child of the Force, and begging you to come home, to come back to your brother and sister Jedi. I’m sure you feel it even now.”

Bowing her head, she nodded, her lips pulled into a thin line. “I… I have. I’ve been finding myself wondering why I keep wanting to go to the east when… I know there’s nothing there anymore.”

Obi-Wan nodded somberly. “Yes. I’ve felt it too. Unfortunately…” he took a deep heavy breath and let it out. “I can never return so I follow Anakin and keep him out of trouble.”

Ahsoka arched her brows and gave Obi-Wan a long stare. “Ah huh. And why do I only see you at night and where is Anakin anyway? Shouldn’t he be here explaining this too?”

Obi-Wan gazed off into the distance. “He is hunting. Now… Have you eaten your fill?”

Ahsoka blinked at her hands, surprised to have found she had already finished off her stick of jerky and hunk of cheese during the course of their conversation. She took another sip of sweet wine and handed the cup back to Obi-Wan. “I think it’s time for you to go to sleep, little one. I will talk to Anakin about his behavior towards you. I promise he won’t do that again.”

“And I’m just supposed to believe you?” she snorted, refusing to budge from her log or accept the heavy woolen blanket Obi-Wan had pulled from Anakin’s saddle bag. “Is this how Jedi do business? Give cryptic answers and then ‘Shoo! Off to bed with you!’? Why should I trust you?”

“Because Anakin trusts me,” he answered with a solemn voice. “And Twilight trusts me and because even if you don’t want to admit it, _you_ trust me, Ahsoka.”

Ahsoka frowned at the ground and let out a breath. “Okay, fine. I do trust you. But I still don’t trust Anakin.”

She accepted the blanket from Obi-Wan and wrapped it around her shoulders, sliding off the log just enough to pillow the ends of the fabric under her head.

Obi-Wan shook his head. “That is unfortunate, my dear, but I promise Anakin is worthy of your trust. He doesn’t always act like it but he cares very deeply for people. The prospect of… having his revenge upon the Emperor is… testing him. And me, I’m embarrassed to admit.”

“Why you?” Ahsoka yawned, finding sleep stealing over her in spite of her attempts to resist it. “Why do you want to kill the Emperor?”

Obi-Wan frowned at her and murmured softly, “He destroyed my world and made me watch, helpless to stop him.”  

* * *

 

Somewhere between midnight and the early pre-dawn hours, Obi-Wan fell asleep himself and dreamt of a time before the fall of the Order, before Anakin’s noble title and before even their own knighthood.

Anakin and Obi-Wan had snuck off from the Temple, borrowing two horses from the stables early that morning and riding for the lake north of the city, one that fed the aqueducts and canals that were the lifeblood of the City of the Dawn. They rode as fast and as hard as the horses would go, teasing and taunts flying back and forth between them as sure as arrows. Winding their way out of the City, they thundered past slow-moving merchants, around packs of pilgrims and streaked by the stately moving carriages of the nobles who were coming to the City to pay their respects to the Order and request their aid, protection or benevolence.

By the time they reached the southern shore of the lake, the sun was just beginning to make its strength known and both boys slid off their horses and tied them up with long leads under a immortal tangle oak near the water’s edge, giving the creatures a chance to rest in the cool shade while the boys stripped off their jerkins, belts and boots and ran splashing into the water.

The lake was quite large, taking months to navigate around by foot, and a popular spot for visitors during the sweltering heat of the summer. Obi-Wan and Anakin’s spot was a little ways off the beaten path and they had discovered it on a padawans outing with their fellow squires last year. With shady trees and tall green grass, they could leave their horses unattended while they enjoyed the cool and refreshing water.

They spent the day there, swimming and climbing in trees, scaring unsuspecting boaters by dropping out of said trees that grew out over the water. They received their fair share of chastising and scolding but after a few pretty apologies from Obi-Wan or a glance at the padawan mark tattooed on Anakin’s chest most were content to let the two swim off.

They knew all too well the heavy burden awaiting young Jedi-in-training.

Later in the day, in search of food and some more adventure, Obi-Wan snuck onto a pleasure barge that belonged to the Duchess of Mandalore, a girl no older than he and beautiful like a painting come to life. Anakin had climbed on board after him, worried that his brother-padawan was going to get himself into real trouble, only to find that they had been invited into the small boating party with the rest of the Duchess’ friends and companions.

They spent the afternoon with the Duchess and her cadre of Mandalorians laughing and showing off for the assembled ladies and guards in exchange for food and drink. Anakin walked the entire circumference of the barge’s railing on his hands to great acclaim and Obi-Wan won a kiss from the Duchess when he completed a set of three backwards flips on the same railing.

After they parted ways, the ladies-in-waiting sighing sadly and the Duchess rolling her eyes at their maudlin farewells, Anakin and Obi-Wan swam back to the lake edge and their horses, content to dry out on the soft sand of the narrow beach there as the sun started to sink below the horizon.

Obi-Wan wondered if Anakin had fallen asleep when he spoke up.

"What's it like, kissing, I mean?" Anakin asked Obi-Wan as they laid on the banks of the lake, letting the last few rays of sunlight dry them off. He was jealous that his friend had gotten a chance to kiss the Duchess and Anakin hadn't. Obi-Wan was always charming and cheerful and people simply fell madly in love with him while Anakin quietly smoldered in the shadows next to him.

Usually it didn't matter because Obi-Wan was his best friend and he saved his true self for Anakin, his hopes, his fears and his secrets. Anakin knew more about the inner workings of Obi-Wan's spirit better than his own and so when he felt a strange frisson of desire at the kiss between the Duchess and Obi Wan, it started a firestorm of jealousy in his heart.

Why Obi-Wan?

Why not Anakin?

What was wrong with him?

"It's like… being vulnerable on purpose," Obi-Wan explained, drawing lazy circles in the air with his hands. "It's warm and soft and it makes you feel… wanted."

"Wanted?" Anakin echoed. "You don't feel wanted with me?"

"Of course I do," Obi wan laughed and turned to Anakin, who was trying to scowl at the growing indigo of twilight but not show it. "Are you angry with me, Anakin? Did I upset you?"

Anakin turned away, annoyed Obi-Wan could see right through him even without the Force. "I've never been kissed."

"Yes, you have!" Obi Wan insisted, rolling into his side. "What about that solstice festival Master Jinn took us to? You and that handmaiden spent nearly an hour in that closet! I was worried you were trying to get her pregnant."

Anakin shook his head. "She… she… I didn't do anything. I couldn't. And then we were both too embarrassed to come back out."

"Oh."

Anakin felt a brief surge of satisfied pique and he peered back at Obi-Wan who was frowning.

"What?"

"Did you want to kiss the Duchess?" Obi-Wan asked, his voice carefully neutral.

Anakin looked down at Obi-Wan's lips, the way they moved through his impossibly smooth words. Soft, red and inviting.

He had kissed that girl with those lips.

Did Anakin want to kiss the Duchess?

"No. I don't."

_I want to kiss you._ Anakin thought, for a moment not worried if Obi-Wan heard his thoughts through the Force. He rolled up and over to look down at his best friend, whose blue eyes were locked on his. "Can I kiss you?"

Obi-Wan stilled beneath him, his blue eyes round with surprise and his breathing short and shallow. Anakin watched him, tracked each expression and blink, each shallow inhale and longer exhale, each cloud of thought passing through the other boy's head before he saw Obi-Wan's gaze drop from his eye to someplace else.

Anakin licked his lips, catching his lower lip beneath his teeth like when he was nervous. He swallowed and closed his eyes to break the spell and laugh it all off, before he felt too much and ruined everything like he usually did.

"Yes."

"What?" Anakin's eyes flew open and a blush leapt to life in his cheeks.

"Yes, you can kiss me," Obi-Wan whispered, his voice low. "I would be honored to be your first kiss, Anakin."

He could kiss him? Obi-Wan would let him kiss him? With eyes closed and slow like he kissed the Duchess?

Why was his heart beating so fast and why did his guts twist in his belly, warm and liquid? What was wrong with him? It was just a kiss.

"Anakin?" Obi-Wan's voice was laced with concern and he reached out a hand to touch his face.

Obi-Wan's hand was warm, rough and made Anakin shiver and he bit his lip again, trying to bring the storm of emotions and feelings under control. He scooted closer to Obi-Wan, who laid back on the soft sand of the lake shore, his head pillowed on his left arm.

Anakin saw Obi-Wan's eyes darken, distracted by something he had done, before their eyes met again and he felt something change. Something wild and electric and as powerful as the Force but as gentle as the breeze at dawn. He let it guide him, let Obi-Wan's hand pull him closer, show him where to go, where he fit and how they nested together.

His eyes fluttered shut as leaned down to kiss Obi-Wan, to brush his lips against his. His first kiss was soft and hesitant, less a kiss than the beat of a scared butterfly's wings against a flame but Obi-Wan did not pull away or tease him.

Obi-Wan canted his head a little so that they would not bash noses and pulled Anakin down against his chest, his hand sinking into soft gold curls as they kissed again, longer this time, hearts thudding against their rib cages, begging to be set free.

It was just like Obi-Wan, soft and warm and Anakin felt like he could do this forever, could spend the rest of his life kissing Obi-Wan, learning all the different ways their lips could come together and make bliss. He never wanted to leave this moment and yet it was all the more precious because when he pulled away, when his eyes met Obi-Wan's again, he could see that his joy was shared.

They rested their foreheads against each other, breaths mingling as Obi-Wan smiled with all his dimples as Anakin blushed and looked away as he always did when the moment meant too much to him.

"Anakin?"

"Yeah?"

"You can kiss me again whenever you like." There was a pleased wonder to Obi-Wan's voice and Anakin grinned, his heart soaring out of his body and into the beautiful night overhead, all thoughts and memories of the Duchess long forgotten.

* * *

 

Obi-Wan woke up to the dark of the pre-dawn hours and frowned, rubbing at the sleep in his eyes. He couldn’t remember falling asleep, but that wasn’t a problem. It was still dark but there was still a bit of spark left in the embers of the fire and he tossed some dried leaves on it to wake it back up before feeding it a few thicker scraps of branches.

Sitting back against the tree trunk he had been sleeping against, Obi-Wan frowned at the memories of the dream he had had, wondering where it had come from and why now of all times?

_That dream… those weren’t my memories of that day. I don’t think… I don’t think that was my dream. Was it Anakin’s? Is that possible? Could Ahsoka’s presence have something to do with it? Is the Temple calling or is it just the amplification of two Force-Blessed in the same place?_

Then a flash of embarrassment washed through him at the thought that poor Ahsoka might have somehow witnessed the dream itself and he sat up to see if she was awake or not.

“Ahsoka? Did I wake you?” Obi-Wan called, peering into the gloom of the wee hours of the morning. “I do hope you’re still asleep, little one.”

Pushing himself out of his warm nest of blanket and Anakin’s cloak, Obi-Wan gingerly walked around the firepit only to let out a loud groan and a particularly florid curse in canal-speak.

Ahsoka was gone and there was no trace of her.

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes heavenward. “Anakin is going to kill me.”

In the distance, a wolf howled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my dears! Are you having a good day? Are you watching the Oscars? How goes your Oscars pool? 
> 
> In case you haven't guessed the winners of my informal reader's poll are this fic here and After the End of the World! YAAAAAAAY!!!! So these two fics will alternate updates in between Tano and Kenobi seasons. Hopefully this will help me burn through the pile of unwritten fics I have to do. 
> 
> Anyway! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the fun little memory at the end. I've been waiting a long time to share that scene! ^3^
> 
> As always, you can find me at tumblr at [FireflyFish.](http://fireflyfish.tumblr.com/)


	5. The Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahsoka has managed to free herself from Anakin's clutches by betraying the trust of the Pale Man, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi. She makes her bid for freedom the next day, heading east, unable to resist the call of the City of Dawn and the shattered ruins of the Jedi Temple.
> 
> Meanwhile, in the Imperial capital, Lord Maul rides out to capture General Skywalker and bring him back to the Emperor.

Two days prior…

The bells rang out over the Imperial palace, hard, sharp and thunderous, spurring the members of the Imperial Sith guard into action. Men in black and red scrambled through the different courtyards, assembling into their units before they marched into the central area that lead to the main gate. They formed perfectly regimented squares of bloody red as their leader, Lord Maul, rode through the main line down the middle. 

“Men!” Maul shouted, his horse rearing up on his hind legs at his deft command of the steed. “Today we ride out for the north and the east! Those treacherous Jedi refuse to stay buried and it is your job to put them back into the ground where they belong! And know this, the name of the man who finds Anakin Skywalker will be brought to the personal attention of the Emperor. As will the body of the man who lets him get away!”

The assembled guards let out a cheer before Maul dismissed them to their tasks and wheeled his horse around to thunder through the open gate, his yellow eyes gleaming at the thought of besting Skywalker and finally earning his master’s approval. His blade hummed at his side, thirsty for the traitor’s blood, and the Sith allowed himself a cruel, sharp grin of anticipation as he rode out through the city. 

_ Soon you will be mine, Skywalker. And I shall take great pleasure in destroying you and ensuring that I am the Emperor’s truest disciple. _

All in all, the Sith Guard sent out at least half of their manpower in the last direction Skywalker and the Horned Mouse had been spotted. 

The city itself was abuzz with the news that a criminal had escaped from the Black Hole and there were many in the lower quarters who quietly cheered for their renegade daughter when the rumors reached the Old Town and River districts, where the majority of the poor, desperate and marginalized thick-bloods lived. 

“Can you believe it? A thick-blood defying that bastard like that?”

“She must be so brave!”

“I heard she was wrongly accused!”

“I heard that it was one of Plo’s orphans. The one he was so proud of until she took to thieving.”

“A girl’s gotta make a living somehow. Better than whoring.”

“I wonder what Old Man Plo thinks?”

The old man in question was worried when one of his boys scampered into his orphanage with the news. “Father Plo! Father Plo! Sir! They say Ahsoka escaped from the Black Hole and she’s on the run up north!”

Plo Koon, a thick-blooded Kel Dor from the lands beyond Shili frowned from his work table at the bright and hopeful faces of two of his charges, Wolfe Fett and a younger boy by the name of Caleb Dume. They both beamed up at their adopted father with eyes shining in excitement. “Ahsoka’s alive, Father!”

Taking a deep breath and centering himself, Plo Koon put aside the knife he had been sharpening to give the boys his full attention. “Now what have I told you boys about spreading gossip?”

“You told us not to, sir,” Wolfe answered, his head bowed respectfully. “But Caleb felt the Shivers so I thought, maybe, it might be real. So we came to tell you, sir.”

Plo Koon turned to Caleb and observed the young boy, the way he wrung his hands together and chewed on his lower lip. “Is this true, Caleb? Did you feel the Force speaking to you?”

Caleb nodded shyly, scratching at the back of his neck. “Yes, sir. It felt like that time we went to the Fountains of Light and I stood under the waterfall: cold and bright and shivery.”

Sitting back on the bench, Plo steepled his fingers together, deep in thought, as he allowed the smallest and faintest of tendrils to reach out to the Force, to try to understand threads of fate weaving together. Behind his people’s traditional face covering, he closed his eyes and willed himself deeper into the calm and protective waters of the river of the Ahsla, as his master had once called it. He could not sense Ahsoka but he could sense a faint tension in that blue-white river that coursed through and around all living things. 

Something was different now, a faint edge of light where once there had only been the flat and painful dull reality of the slaughter of his brother and sister Jedi. 

If Ahsoka, perhaps the brightest of the Force-Blessed children he had taken care of, had indeed escaped the Black Hole and was headed in an easterly direction, then that meant she was feeling the call of the remains of the Temple. 

Perhaps that meant there were survivors. 

Perhaps there was hope for them after all.

“Did you two hear anything else?” he asked the boys, carefully masking his anxious curiosity from Caleb. 

Wolfe nodded. “Yeah, uhm, one of them said she was with General Skywalker but that’s not right because I thought he was dead.”

Plo Koon let out a breath and quietly prayed to the Force. 

Ahsoka was in far greater danger than she realized. 

 

* * *

 

The next day dawned with a clear blue sky and a pleasant wind that took the edge off of the fading heat of late autumn. Anakin sat atop Twilight on the top of the highest hill he had been able to find, trying to reach out with his senses to locate his wayward little thief in the Force and he was having no luck. He decided to wait while the eagle finished hunting and killing its breakfast and reached into his pack to pull out the metal canister that protected his precious journal inside from the elements. 

Carefully unrolling the beaten up leather covered book, Anakin carefully flipped through the pages, his eyes roaming over Obi-Wan’s handwriting as if he were looking at the man himself. Most of the entries were simply a record of his actions and thoughts, although occasionally there were snippets of poems they learned at the Temple or a faint sketch of something Obi-Wan had found worth recording for Anakin’s perusal.

Recently his writing had taken on a desperate tone as he tried and pleaded with Anakin to return his missives. He didn’t understand: how could he really? Why wouldn’t Anakin write back? What had happened? What did Obi-Wan do wrong?

_ How long must I wait to see the only part of you that is left to me? I am patient, Anakin, but I am not made of stone like you once accused me of. Write me. Talk to me. Please. _

_ I have no one else, my love. Do not leave me in the dark, alone. I know your hand is there and yet I know not how to find it. _

Anakin bowed his head, feeling the full weight of his shame crushing his lungs. How could he write to Obi-Wan after what he had done, to him, to them, to everyone? He didn’t deserve to lay down his troubles in pen and ink, to give Obi-Wan even more to carry on his shoulders than was already there. 

This curse, this nightmare existence, all of this was his fault. 

Obi-Wan was in hell and suffering because of Anakin and there was nothing he could do to fix it.

The last time Anakin had broken down and put pen to paper had been the anniversary of their joint knighting. His travels had taken him within sight of the City of Dawn and the call of the Temple, the aching, keening wail of the Force driving him off of Twilight and into a nearby ruin of a Temple-branded waystation. He had collapsed in despair, almost ripping through the pages of his precious journal, searching frantically for something, anything that Obi-Wan had written to make the pain, the horrid, thunderous, screaming pain go away. 

He found it, a small entry written during a peaceful trip to the Kingdom of Alderaan.

_ Dearest, _

_ I know why you did what you did. I regret that I could not show you another way, that I let you think you suffered alone during our times apart. You did not. I missed you, longed for you, just as fiercely as you for me. I would have done anything to be with you as we were when we were younger. I know the depths of your passion, Anakin, as intimately and as well as I know my own.  _

_ I cannot say I would have done the same. But I would have broken my vows for you.  _

_ I forgive you, Anakin. I hope one day you can forgive yourself. There is still light in you. I know there is. _

_ All my love, _

_ Obi-Wan _

Anakin curled the journal against his chest and repeated to himself over and over again that Obi-Wan forgave him, that he still loved him, that he was not completely lost to the dark. That there was still hope for him. That he was not the Sith the Emperor claimed he was destined to become. That his blade would one day be the same bright blue as Obi-Wan’s once again. 

That one day he would see Obi-Wan again.

The words had poured forth, as jagged and rushed as the spillway of a dam. 

_ I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I love you. I’m sorry. This is all my fault. I love you, so much. I miss you, your smile, your laugh. I miss the way you would groan at my bad jokes and shout at me when I misbehaved. I miss hearing you say my name.  _

_ I’m sorry I brought us back here, so close to home and everything I destroyed, everything I let the Empire destroy. I just… I just wanted you by my side. I wanted you back. I wanted it to be like it was before, when it was just you and me trailing after Master. I thought if I could just get a better title, a higher position, then it would be like it was before. You by my side always.  _

_ What have I done? I don’t know how to fix this, Obi-Wan. I don’t know how to break the curse and I cannot go to the one place that might have answers. He did this to both of us and you did nothing wrong. They’re calling you a murderer, an assassin, and it’s all my fault.  _

_ I’m sorry.  _

_ I love you.  _

_ Forgive me. _

Anakin had woken up the next morning to three pages full of Obi-Wan’s writing and it had only made the pain of his breakdown worse. His beloved had written words of comfort, of love and desire. There was a whole list of ideas and theories, of spells they had learned as padawans that might have been useful.

Obi-Wan had written all of that for him, spent his night crouched by a fire, squinting at poorly-lit paper trying to help Anakin through his breakdown. He was almost certain the amount of work in those pages had taken the other man all night to write down. His precise and neat handwriting seemed to go on and on and every now and then there was a note, a small  _ Thank you for writing, my love. _ Over and over again.

_ Thank you. _

_ I’m so happy to see your terrible handwriting again. I don’t even know who I am anymore.  _

_ I cannot tell you how happy your bittersweet missive makes me.  _

It tore at his soul to think that his bright and beautiful Obi-Wan had been reduced to begging for notes from Anakin of all people. He should have been in the field, commanding troops or receiving acclaim for his bravery, courage and cunning, but instead he was a fugitive, a wanted criminal and exiled from the only home they had ever known. 

All because of Anakin.

Anakin loved and hated their shared journal, but it was the only way they had to communicate with each other so he held onto it. Even in the depths of his masochistic self-hate, Anakin was unwilling to lose even this small piece of Obi-Wan’s voice.

Now as Anakin shook himself out of his sorrowful memories, he flipped to the newest page, frowning as he found Obi-Wan’s newest note to him. It was much shorter than usual and almost hilariously blunt.

_ Anakin, _

_ It seems Ahsoka has escaped. Force only knows why she was tied up to a tree in the first place.  _

_ She’s heading east.  _

_ Try not to scare her anymore. _

_ All my love and mirth, _

_ The Pale Man _

Anakin shook his head and took a deep breath before he looked up at the sky to see his golden eagle soaring overhead, its vast brown and white wingspan carrying it higher and higher into the blue. Pulling on his gauntlet, he pulled out his whistle and gave three blasts, which called the eagle back to his arm. 

“Good morning,” Anakin murmured, offering the eagle a morsel of food. “Let’s go find our friend, shall we?”

The eagle let out a soft cry and Anakin urged Twilight forward as he let the Force guide him towards the distant pinprick of radiant light he knew was Ahsoka. 

He had to get to her before the Emperor’s men did. He owed a fellow child of the Force his protection whether she wanted it or not.

 

* * *

 

Ahsoka crested the top of a small hill, really no more than a bump on the Eastern Road. She let out a yawn and kept walking, confident that there was absolutely no way that the Pale Man could have been following her or General Skyguy for that matter. 

All she had to do was catch a ride with a passerby to the east and then maybe she would try her luck in the Duchy of Mandalore. She had heard nice things about the compassionate nature of the Duchess and maybe if she played her cards right, she could work her way into one of the guilds that served there. Perhaps she could take up leather working or work in an apothecary or something equally lucrative and boring. 

Anything had to be better than agreeing to help a former Jedi Knight attempt to assassinate the Emperor. 

She regretted abandoning the Pale Man, though. He seemed nice enough and he actually bothered to answer some of her questions although he was clever at deflecting or outright ignoring the rest of them. Ahsoka supposed she should have been more irate with Obi-Wan but there was something about him that reminded her so much of Plo Koon back at home that she just couldn’t bring herself to the point of anger. 

And he had set her free and allowed her to escape from the clutches of General Skyguy, so he wasn’t all bad once she got past the part about agreeing with the Emperor’s murder.

However, she believed Obi-Wan when he said he had a reason to want the Emperor dead. There was something about his eyes and the clench of his jaw when he spoke, something that reminded Ahsoka of the few assassination hires she had listened in on when visiting taverns to pick up jobs. 

Love could motivate someone just a strongly as hate and Ahsoka was fairly certain that whatever was going on between the Pale Man and the General most likely skewed towards the former than the later. 

As Ahsoka walked along the Eastern Road, she came upon a few ramshackle little huts that had seen better days. The roofs were slanted and almost caving in and walls were crumbling in places. There were two paddocks attached to the houses, which were huddled near a winding stream that lazily made its way through the small valley. In the distance up on the hills were several heads of sheep, grazing on the last green grass of the summer, their coats a mix of white, dusty taupe and the rich brown of the local mud. 

There was no sign of a shepherd, or anyone else for that matter, and it gave Ahsoka pause, her senses on high alert as she slowed down her approach. She strained to hear anything with her montrals but as near as she could tell there was no danger and, reassured, she walked on, determined to ignore the prickling feeling running down her back.

It didn’t matter what the Pale Man said. She did not have the Force and she was just overreacting to the barren nature of the road and the land. That was all.

Walking past the first hut, she noticed that there was no light inside or smoke. Whoever it was that lived there had either abandoned it or left before dawn, giving the place a very eerie feeling. Moving slowly and careful to tread softly and not make a great deal of noise, Ahsoka passed on to the next home, feeling her anxiety rise to a fever pitch as if something was ringing in the back of her mind. This place wasn’t safe and she needed to run as fast as she could before something terrible happened to her.

_ No. You’re just being childish. You’re much safer away from those two lunatics. _

Confident that she was safe, Ahsoka picked up her pace to hurry onwards. She wanted to get to a town with actual residents by the end of the day as possible. She had stolen the last bit of dried meat and cheese from Anakin’s pack when she left but that wasn’t going to carry her much further and she didn’t have any water or wine, which was going to be a problem much sooner.

All the more reason to keep moving.

Which would have been a good idea if there weren’t two Sith guards standing in the middle of the pathway, pointing their simple, dull metal swords at her face. 

Ahsoka gasped and held her hands up, backing away before another guard grabbed her from behind and let out a raspy cackle. “We’ve got you now, you little thick-blood brat!”

Letting out a scream, Ahsoka did her best to struggle to break free but the guard held her fast against him, his hands wrapped around her upper arms like iron bands. The other two guards approached her and one pulled out a length of rope to for her hands. She refused to give up without a fight and lashed out with her legs, leveraging her small size against the support of the guard holding her. She managed to kick one of the guards in a particularly sensitive area before the second guard punched her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. 

Gasping for air, Ashoka fumed helplessly as the officious guards tied her hands together behind her back. She glared at them as they marched her forwards with a dark threat. “Captain Savage will be most pleased to see you, little rat.”

“First of all, I’m the Horned Mouse you idiot!” Ahsoka spat once she got her breath back. “And second of all, you had better let me go! There are dangerous men hunting me!”

“Oh?” smirked one of the guards as they shoved her forward at sword point. “Let me guess, General Skywalker?”

Ahsoka glanced back at the guard, trying to bluff. “Yes. He’ll stop at nothing to recover me. I imagine he’ll slaughter all three of you in one swing.”

To be honest, Ahsoka couldn’t really imagine Anakin doing such a thing but it sounded impressive and she had no doubt he was capable of just such a move. The guards shoved her forward and it was then that she noticed a small spiral of smoke rising over the horizon they were clearly heading toward. 

Ahsoka didn’t know a thing about this Captain Savage but she was convinced that she was not going to enjoy her encounter with him.

 

* * *

 

As it turned out, Captain Savage was a thick-blooded Zabrak like Lord Maul, taller and broader with jaundiced skin and his own dark and twisting tattoos. He emerged from a tent he and his men had been resting in, walking over to the guardsmen who were holding Ahsoka prisoner. His stride was powerful and confident and he grinned, pleased as he took in the sight of the bound and helpless girl before him. 

“Well, well,” Savage smirked, resting his hands on his hips. “Looks like we’ve caught a mouse. Tell us where Skywalker is.”

Ahsoka’s gaze drifted from Savage to another guard and then back, her mind whirling quickly. “Skywalker? Skywalker? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Savage practically rolled his eyes in annoyance at her and unsheathed his sword, an Ilum steel blade that was a swirl of charcoal and red, as if blood had fallen on the blade and stained it red in places as the light bled through the edges. There was something abhorrent about that weapon and Ahsoka cringed backwards from it. 

_ Stolen! Thief! Murderer! _ the blade wailed and Ahsoka held up her hands, trying to block out the cries. 

“Let’s try this again,” Savage growled, taking a step closer. “Where is Skywalker?”

“Skywalker? Oh! Yes! Tall guy with a black horse? I remember!” Ahsoka stammered out, feeling a sudden and irrational urge to protect the man who had only last night tied her to a tree. She couldn’t quite explain it but she knew in her gut that this man needed to stay as far away from Anakin Skywalker as she could manage. “I saw him riding south to the Imperial crown lands.”

“Then we ride north, sir,” the other guardsman smirked to Captain Savage, his arms folded over his chest, proud of his attempt at reverse psychology. 

Ahsoka bristled. “It’s not polite to assume someone is a liar if you’ve only just met them.”

“And yet, you knew we would,” Savage observed, the ugly smile on his face growing larger. “We ride south.” 

In the distance, a growing bank of clouds let out a rumble, promising storms and unpleasantness to come. Ahsoka let out a groan as she glared at the sky. “I told the truth, merciful Lady! How can I learn any moral lessons if you keep confusing me like this?” But there was no answer from the Great Lady Shaak Ti as Ahsoka was hauled off. There was only the faintest sensation, tickling at the back of her mind, that somehow, she would get through this. That help would come for her.

 

* * *

 

Anakin frowned at the distant, grey haze of storms and gazed up at the sky where his eagle was lazily circling overhead. At the base of the small rise was a clutch of ruined huts for shepherds. He remembered a time when those huts had been well maintained, when there had been families that lived there and little children had chased after him and Twilight as they rode through, either to the City of the Dawn or back to the Imperial capital. 

He wondered what had happened to those people, who had so proudly displayed their loyalty to the Jedi Order only a day’s ride away from the Imperial Crown lands. 

Anakin shook such dark thoughts from his mind and urged his horse forward. He needed to find Ahsoka before anything happened to her. He whistled for the eagle, who let out a cry and glided into a landing on his glove. 

Guiding Twilight in a steady walk through the valley, Anakin tried to ignore the hairs sticking up on the back of his neck, telling himself that it was just his guilt making him overreact. There were no ghosts in those dilapidated buildings and there was certainly nothing to worry about. 

He passed a low tumbling pile of stones that had once served as a corner of a sheep paddock when the Force carried something to him, ice-cold and full of panic.  _ Run, Skyguy! Run! You have to run! _

Anakin pulled Twilight up and scanned the area, stretching out with his senses to find the source of the disturbance. 

Then he heard the faint sounds of a man struggling and choking and he flung the eagle into the air, who took off with a loud and piercing shriek, beating his wings higher and higher into the sky. 

The high whistle of a crossbow bolt rang out before it embedded itself into one of Anakin’s saddle bags. Whirling his horse around, Anakin reached for his own crossbow and pulled it free, glad that he kept it cocked and loaded for just such an occasion. There were two Sith guards emerging from behind a shepherd's hut and Anakin took aim at one, feeling a sense of grim satisfaction as the bolt embedded itself deep in the Sith’s gut. 

Another bolt flew through the air and Anakin knocked it away with a gust of the Force and fired his own bolt at the guard, who let out a yelp as the projectile found its target, sending him crashing to the ground. 

“Traitor!” screamed another nameless Sith who charged toward Anakin, swinging his sword overhead as if that was going to intimidate the man who had once sacked Serenno and brought the mighty Count of that city-state to his knees, begging for mercy. 

Anakin hadn’t been merciful then and he wouldn’t be merciful now.

Letting out a cry, Anakin kicked Twilight forward, keeping his head low behind the horse’s as the other guard rode in for the attack, the crossbow clenched tight in his hand. The other guard let out a great shout as he prepared to bring his sword down on Anakin and Twilight’s neck but at the last moment, Anakin popped up and swung the crossbow up into the man’s chin, knocking him backwards off his horse with a dreadful crash of bone and armor. 

The fight looked to be almost over when Anakin sensed something dark and twisted from behind one of the ramshackle huts. He tossed his crossbow away and searched for the source of the disturbance in the Force. 

And then he saw it, a yellow-green Zabrak he recognized from his time as a general in the Imperial army. Savage, the brother of Maul, who was no doubt hunting both Anakin and Ashoka on orders from Palpatine. He had never cared for either of the brothers, finding them too brutal and cruel to be good soldiers.

“Skywalker!” Savage roared and kicked his horse forward, his Ilum blade out and flashing in the midday sun. 

Anakin unsheathed his sword at his side and smiled, enjoying the moment of war and brutality. This was what he was born for, what the Force had made him into. He was a warrior and battle was the rhythm of his heartbeat and “Come and get me, Savage.”

The two warriors galloped at each other, wholly focused on their battle and ignoring what was going on with the last members of Savage’s band of Sith guards, one of whom was trying to fight off Ahsoka. He distantly realized it had been the sound of her fighting her way free that had alerted him to the ambush and now she was trying her best to help him again by running at one of Savage’s men and flinging herself straight at his gut, knocking him down with a loud and pained groan. 

Taking the opportunity to pull the gag out of her mouth, Ahsoka spotted the last guard standing, who was taking his time to steady his crossbow’s aim at Anakin’s back.

“Anakin, watch out!” Ahsoka leapt at the guard, using the now-slack rope hanging between her wrists to pull him backwards to the ground before he could fire. 

Instead of hitting Anakin, the bolt flew wild, straight up into the sky, and Ahsoka watched in horror as the arrow struck the eagle in the shoulder.

There was a sharp, high-pitched shriek of pain as the eagle shuddered and fell.

And fell. 

And fell, suddenly too heavy and graceless for the currents that had once held it aloft.

“NO!” Anakin roared and turned on Savage, a vein of crimson blooming in his blade as he took firm hold of Twilight’s reins and charged at the Sith. Savage rode forward to meet Skywalker in the middle of the battle, his expression bright and cruel.

Ahsoka scampered along the edge of the battlefield, picking up a dropped crossbow and hitting another guard in the head who was struggling to his feet to join in with the battle against Skywalker. 

The guard fell back without a sound and she kept running, holding her unwieldy cudgel in case she needed it again. She skidded to a halt between the battle and the eagle, her weapon raised in defense of Anakin’s pet. She may not have been the biggest fan of the bird but she was damned if she was going to let those Sith monsters put a finger on the poor creature.

_ Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. I am so sorry! I was just trying to help your master. Please Great Lady! Please be merciful. Please let it be all right. _

Anakin’s fight with Savage was brutal and no quarter was given. Anakin and Twilight moved as one, the stallion striking out with his hooves as commanded and dancing sideways to carry them out of reach of the Sith Captain. Savage was not the rider that Anakin was and it showed with his paltry attempts as wheeling his horse around, who balked at the way the Zabrak handled the reins.

Letting out a great whinny of pain and terror, Savage’s horse threw him to the ground and took off running, kicking up a great cloud of dust in its wake. Groaning in pain, the Zabrak pushed himself upright only to find Skywalker was already off of his horse and slamming into him with a fierce growl. His eyes were of a gold that matched the Sith Captain’s, the edges ringed in red as they exchanged blows.

Again and again they clashed, the metallic cry of their swords striking each other making Ahsoka’s montrals hurt in a way she could not describe, as if the blades themselves were crying out in agony. Something cold and dark clawed at her heart and she tightened her grip on her crossbow, prepared to join the fray if Savage got close enough.

The fight was bitter and intense but it was clear as time wore on that Savage was not a match for Anakin, whose blade howled with fury as they fought. Finding an opening, Anakin didn’t hesitate in his attack, slicing clear through the Zabrak’s arm. 

The Sith captain collapsed to the ground and dragged himself backward, screaming in pain and anguish, clutching at the stump that remained, blood gushing through his fingers. 

Anakin stared down at him, his eyes two glowing coals of hatred as he slowly stalked toward his defeated enemy. His mind filled with darkness, he spat curses at the Zabrak and reached out with his hand to lift the dying creature up by his throat.    
  
“B-but… they said… aughf… you were a Jedi…” Savage wheezed as the air was slowly but surely squeezed out of his lungs by the advancing General Skywalker. “Ha… haugh…. How?”

Skywalker yanked Savage over to him, sneering down at the slowly dying Zabrak as he raised his sword and his aura pulsing with hate. “They lied.”

“Anakin!” Ahsoka cried, from where she was crouched on the ground, trying to keep out the despair and rage that was battering against her unprotected mind. “STOP! Please!”

Anakin glanced back at Ahsoka, cowering in pain and fear, and then again to Savage, who was turning a sickly shade yellow at his mortal injury and Anakin’s stranglehold on his neck. For a moment the rage cleared and his gaze dropped to his blade now awash in a tide of vermillion. Horrified, Anakin dropped Savage to the ground and backed away, his hands shaking as he struggled to sheath his sword again, to hide away his shame at falling yet again when the ones he cared about were in danger. 

Savage fell to the ground with a broken moan and did not move. The distant clouds promising a storm let out a low growl of thunder and then the Zabrak was gone. 

Turning on his heels, Anakin ran for Ahsoka, calling her name. “Are you alright? Did I hurt you? I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry! I didn’t meant to hurt you.” 

Ahsoka took a deep breath and stood up. “I’m… I’m okay. I’ll be alright. Your, your eagle… I think he’s still alive.”

She watched in shock as Anakin’s eyes shifted from predatory yellow to grass green and then blue as he stared at her. “What… but… He’s alive?!”

Startled into moving, Anakin hurried over to where the golden eagle was lying on the ground, letting out a pitiful cry, his heart beating so hard in his chest Ahsoka could almost see it. Moving slowly and steadily toward the bird, Anakin held his hands out, fingers splayed, to show the creature he meant no harm.

“Shh… It’s alright. You’ll be all right,” Anakin whispered, his voice choked and raw. “Ahsoka? Get me a piece of cloth from my saddle bag.”

She did as she was asked, hurrying over to Twilight, who was nibbling at fresh grass as he waited, the war steed unperturbed by the dead man just a few yards away. 

Yanking open the first bag she came to, Ahsoka pulled out a large piece of soft cotton twill, about as wide as it was long, and then scampered back over to Anakin. She made sure to make her moves slow and purposeful when she came into view of the injured eagle.

Once he had the fabric, Anakin crossed the final distance to the golden eagle lying on the grass, its feathers stained with blood around the site of the wound. Kneeling down carefully, Anakin draped the cloth over the eagle, whispering soft and plaintive words to it as he moved. 

“Shhh… it’s alright. You’ll be fine. I promise,” Anakin murmured, stroking the head of the eagle as he pinned the injured wing against the eagle’s side, which earned a horrid shriek of pain and protest and Ahsoka nearly jumped out of her skin. “Shh… I know it hurts. I know. Ahsoka? Get me his hood.”

After another scramble through the former Jedi’s possessions, she returned with the leather item and placed it in Anakin’s hand, frowning at the large creature. “Here you are. I don’t know what good it will do.”

Anakin wasn’t listening to her, whispering some kind of prayer or mantra as he worked. “I’m one with the Force. The Force is with me. I’m one with the Force. The Force is with me.”

Taking a step back, Ahsoka watched Anakin slowly gather the eagle up into his arms and stand. He looked around the valley, at the unconscious Sith guards and Savage dead on the ground, and he seemed lost and hopeless. Ahsoka wondered where the Pale Man was and why hadn’t he ridden to their aid by now.

Finally Anakin’s eyes alighted on her and he held out the injured eagle. “Take him. Please.”

“Take him where? The poor thing is done for!” Ahsoka replied, immediately regretting the words as soon as they left her lips. 

The general’s eyes flashed gold and crimson again as he snarled, “Don’t say that! He’ll be fine. Take Twilight and ride east.”

“You’re the only person who can ride Twilight!” Ahsoka protested even as she knew in her gut that she was lying. She  _ knew _ somehow that Twilight would accept her as a rider and would carry her to their destination, wherever that was.

“Take Twilight,” Anakin repeated, his voice brooking no argument. “You should come upon an old castle. There’s a man inside by the name of Quinlan Vos. He’ll know what to do.”

Twilight came when called, trotting over to Anakin and Ahsoka. She managed to climb up into the saddle and reached down to accept the surprisingly light bird, tucking him against her chest. Ahsoka could feel the poor bird’s heartbeat against her montrals and she reached down to stroke its feathered breast before accepting the reins to Twilight from Anakin’s hand. “Keep him wrapped up and stay on the road. Don’t stop until you get to Quinlan’s castle.”

Ahsoka took firm hold of the reins even as she doubted the use of all this. “Ride east. Find Quinlan Vos. Got it.”

“And know this,” Anakin vowed, his eyes burning too bright and a touch too green again. “If you fail, I will follow you to the end of my days and I  _ will _ find you.”

A shiver of fear ran down her spine and Ahsoka nodded, her eyes round with trepidation. She nudged Twilight forward and with a slap on the haunches from Anakin and a command to “Go!” Ahsoka and the wounded eagle were off, riding down the road to the east.

Anakin watched them until they cleared the horizon and then he turned his gaze back to his blade, unsheathing it from its hilt. He held the blade up, feeling disgust at the black-veined crimson blossoms there now, like infected wounds from a knife. He shook his head and started to walk down the road, pausing long enough to make sure Savage was truly dead before moving onward.

The sun was almost at its zenith and Anakin prayed to the Force that Ahsoka would make it to Quinlan’s castle before sundown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody! Welcome back to The Eagle and the Wolf!
> 
> I want to say thank you to everyone who has left such lovely and enthusiastic comments and I also want to say thank you to some the absolutely lovely Silvergryphon who has done amazing artwork for my silly little fic! 
> 
> [Here is an amazing cover](http://silvergryphon.tumblr.com/post/157790970711/wuzzat-a-cover-image-for-the-eagle-and-the-wolf) by the lovely [Silvergryphon](http://silvergryphon.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. 
> 
> Thank you thank you thank you! You should also go check out her wonderful Art Noveau triptych of Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka! (Well Ahsoka is in the planning stages but Obi-Wan and Anakin are done!)
> 
> As always you can find me on tumblr at [FireflyFish](http://fireflyfish.tumblr.com)
> 
> Thanks for reading and commenting!


	6. The Drunken Monk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While rescuing Ahsoka from the clutches of Sith Guard Captain Savage, Anakin's beloved golden eagle is struck by a crossbow bolt. Anakin gives Ahsoka his eagle and his war horse, Twilight, and commands her to ride east toward the ruined castle of Quinlan Vos with the promise that if she fails, he will follow her to the end of his days.
> 
> But who is Quinlan Vos and should Ahsoka trust him with the life of her feathered friend? 
> 
> If she should, what, if anything, can one drunk possibly do?

Ahsoka and Twilight rode through the afternoon with the sun drifting slowly, inexorably toward the western horizon. At the start of their journey the eagle in her arms let out the occasional cry, the sharp shriek of his pain startling Ahsoka, who would reach carefully down to stroke his chest and whisper, “It will be all right. Merciful Mother Shaak Ti will protect you. She’ll save you.”

Ahsoka wished she believed it. 

They rode over the flat plains, Twilight moving fast and sure along the old and dusty road, passing few travelers. Those they did see made sure to get out of the way of the thick-blooded girl atop the large black war horse. 

As the steed and rider passed, the locals whispered to themselves, recognizing the stallion as an Aethersprite. Only Jedi could tame Aethersprites and only Jedi could ride them at such a breakneck pace over the torn up cobblestones of the ruined Eastern Road. 

They watched Ahsoka ride past and whispered in her dusty wake, “May the Force be with you, Master Jedi.”

As the sun slowly sank behind them, Ahsoka could feel the eagle growing weaker, his cries soft and faint now. She had given Twilight his head to continue on at a more sedate pace but she was starting to worry. There was an insistent feeling twisting her guts that whispered,  _ You’re running out of time. You have to hurry. Go! Run! Fly! _

Ahsoka looked down at the eagle in her arms, brushing a finger against his weakly moving breast. She frowned, concerned at how quiet and silent he was, how still he seemed to be. Her arms and legs ached from being on horseback for so long and Twilight’s flanks were almost pitch-black from sweat. They had been riding for the back half of the day and there was no sign of a castle, run-down or otherwise. 

“I don’t think we’re going to find him, little one,” Ahsoka frowned at the bird as they continued onward, the sun sinking ever closer to the horizon. 

As they raced toward to the darkening eastern sky, Ahsoka looked back over her shoulder and felt the strangest urge to beg the sun to slow down, to give her more time. She didn’t understand where the feeling came from or why it was so strongly but she did offer up a prayer to the Merciful Mother in the hopes that they would arrive at Quinlan Vos’s castle before nightfall.

As Twilight slowed to pick his way carefully up a particularly torn up and ramshackle part of the Eastern Road, Ahsoka glanced up and noticed a tall, ivory tower leaning precariously over the ruins of what must have once been a castle set up on a cliff. She let out a gasp of joy and looked down at the eagle in her arms. “Look! There it is! The castle Skyguy told me about! We’ll be there soon, okay?”

Ahsoka smiled at the eagle in her arms, trying to calm him by stroking the white feathers of his breast, and received a scream and a snap with his beak for her trouble. She let out a cry and pulled her hand back, checking to make sure the creature hadn’t taken a finger off in its attack before she glared back down at the eagle, who was crying out in pain-riddled fear. “Well that’s gratitude for you! Fine! If you’re going to be like that, then let this Quinlan Vos fellow watch you die! I have my own life to look after.”

The words sounded hollow and wrong the minute they left Ahsoka’s lips but she had spent so much of her life concerned only with her own survival that it was easier to react in anger and bluster than to voice the truth of her emotions.

That they were too late. 

That she had failed Anakin and his prized eagle, perhaps his only friend besides Twilight, was about to die in her arms.

Twilight let out a low whinny and tossed his head, his ears turned back to Ahsoka. His hooves stamped against the rough terrain, almost as if the horse did not approve of Ahsoka’s words. She knew her sharp tone with the eagle and the tension in her voice was upsetting to the stallion and she leaned forward just enough to smooth a hand against his flank. “Shhh… I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Can we go to the castle? I don’t think our feathery friend has much time.”

Shifting to the side with a toss of his tail, Twilight started towards the crumbling castle, the rays of the late afternoon sunlight long on the ground as they made their way up the hill.

 

* * *

Far behind them, Anakin walked along the road with his hood pulled up and his gaze focused on the east. He paid no attention to the whispering travelers that he passed. They were of no importance to him, not when Ahsoka and Twilight were drawing ever closer to Quinlan’s castle and the only person who could…

Who could save... 

Shame and grief washed through Anakin as he looked backward over his shoulder, gauging how many hours he had before dusk and despairing that there weren’t enough. There was no way he would be able to catch up to them, not on foot, and not with the Eastern Road looking less like a road and more like a vein of shattered rocks and cobblestones. 

He would have to stop soon. 

Stepping off the remains of the road, Anakin walked towards a distant copse of trees. He pulled off his cloak and hung it off of a low hanging branch before he unsheathed his blade and sat down, legs crossed. He laid the red-stained weapon across his lap and looked up at the sky, closing his eyes as a cool breeze ruffled through the hot curls on the back of his neck. 

Counting his breaths, Anakin began to meditate, repeating only one word, sending it into the Force with every bit of power and skill that he possessed. 

Once, when he was a titled Lord in the Empire, when he was Lord Vader, a high ranking General in the army, he would have found it beneath him to beg for assistance from the Force. He was the most powerful Jedi in generations, possibly even more powerful than the ancient Master Yoda. 

But now, humbled and defeated by his own rage and need for revenge, Anakin Skywalker begged. 

_ Please. _

 

* * *

To call the large tumble of pale stones and precariously leaning retaining walls in front of Ahsoka a castle would be an insult to any castle that had ever been built, including sand castles slapped together by toddlers. The entire building looked as if a strong breeze could knock the whole thing over. Ancient beams of wood were holding up parts of walls and there was some kind of haphazard scaffolding that ran up the front of the cliff face the castle was built upon.

_ How could anyone live here, Great Lady?  _ Ahsoka wondered as she gave Twilight the command to stop. True, the view of the valley below was breathtaking, with excellent views of the Eastern Road both coming and going but that didn’t make up for the fact the whole structure looked like it was going to collapse at a harsh word. If this Quinlan Vos character did, in fact, live in the castle, she had no idea how he was going to be able to help Anakin’s dying eagle.

Twilight let out a weary sigh and the eagle gave a faint cry as Ahsoka shrugged. “Well… If we can’t find him, at least we’ll be off the road tonight.”

The sharp sound of hooves against stone and a toss of Twilight’s tail told Ahsoka that the horse agreed with her. 

“Hello?” Ahsoka called up to the castle, frowning back at the sun starting to sink behind the clouds clustered against the distant horizon.

There was no answer.

Ahsoka resisted the urge to roll her eyes.  _ I knew this was a bad idea. _

“Hello?” She tried again, peering up at the ragged stones that topped the defensive wall of the castle. “For pity’s sake, hello?!”

There was a long, tense moment of silence, Twilight whinnying with impatience before Ahsoka felt movement overhead, her montrals sensing a thin-blood moving toward the edge of the wall. A low, rough voice cried out, “Hello! Hello…”

Ahsoka frowned, peering up at the man leaning over the wall, his dark hair braided into locks and his words slurred with drink and Goddess only knew what else. He leaned heavily against the sharp white rocks, listlessly waving a hand. “What do you want down there?” 

Glancing down at the eagle, Ahsoka called up to the drunken man, “Are you Quinlan Vos? I was told to bring you this bird! It’s been wounded.” 

“Eh?” Quinlan replied, pleasantly confused as he smiled, shuffling over to something Ahsoka was having a hard time making out in the growing murk of sunset. “Oh! Good shot, little one! Bring it in! We’ll dine together.”

_ Dine together?! _ She gaped up at the man on the walls of the castle, her mouth hanging open in horror. They couldn’t cook Anakin’s eagle! He would murder them both and he would probably use that horrible, screaming sword of his that had changed to red after his brutal duel with Savage. 

“We can’t eat this bird!” Ahsoka shot back with as much offended authority as she could manage. 

Pausing from his shambling meander over to a wooden handle sticking out from beyond Ahsoka’s vision, Quinlan leaned haphazardly over the wall, confused. “Why not? Oh Sith Hell! Is it the Fasting Moon already?” 

Resisting the urge to groan, Ahsoka tried once more to get the lush on the wall to help her. “This is not an ordinary eagle! It belongs to a man named Skywalker!”

That seemed to snap him out of his drunken stupor. Quinlan jerked upright and Ahsoka caught a flash of something gold on his face before he waved his hands wildly. “Sweet Merciful Mother! Bring him in! Bring him in, quickly!”

He grabbed one of the handles on what Ahsoka could now identify as a winch and started to pull them down, which in turn lifted a heavy wooden door that was barring the entrance to a long, narrow set of stairs up to the level of the castle where Quinlan stood. 

Ahsoka glanced down at the eagle and tucked him closer to her chest, murmuring softly to him as she pulled one leg over the saddle and slid down to the ground. Twilight flicked his tail and turned his attention to a clump of sweet green plants, ignoring Ahsoka as she and the eagle made their way through the dying sunset. 

She took the stairs two at a time, the eagle faintly crying even as Ahsoka tried not to jostle him. Her arms were starting to ache from holding the same position for so long but she willed the thoughts away, focusing on the overwhelming need to get her feathered friend to the only person who could help him.

“Up here, girl! Hurry!” Quinlan called from the top of the stairs, waiting for her to emerge. 

Ahsoka cleared the last step, Anakin’s eagle letting out cries of distress. Quinlan, who had a sharp nose covered with the golden line of a tattoo across his face, gazed down at the bird, pulling back his covering only enough to see where the crossbow bolt was embedded before turning around and hurrying back into the castle. 

“Follow me,” he ordered, picking his way easily over the crushed stones and fallen masonry that littered the area. He headed toward a dilapidated bridge that spanned a narrow crevasse and crossed from the wall to the only structure left standing. “Careful, girl. Walk on the left side!”

“My name is Ahsoka, not girl!” she answered hotly, even as she followed right behind Quinlan, hugging the left side of the of the bridge as they passed. 

Hurrying up some steps to a wooden door that looked old but still serviceable, Quinlan pulled it open and gestured to Ahsoka to step inside. “There. Go! Hurry! We don’t have all day, girl!”

Ahsoka’s pride bristled but she hurried into the room anyway, taking note of the flickering candles in the alcove and more than one empty jug of wine on a thick slab of a table pushed up against a window. There was a pile of what looked like armor and mail in a corner of the room and a collection of maps with notations tacked up on the wall. 

Passing from the living area of the room to the back half, which was clearly Quinlan’s sleeping area, if the fur-covered mattress on the floor was any indication, Ahsoka could make out a small fireplace and a wooden wardrobe, as well as a few hooks that carried a long dark cloak. Next to that was some clothes and behind that she made out the hilt of a sword that she could almost swear was humming softly. 

Was Quinlan Vos a Jedi Knight?

But hadn’t Anakin told her that all the Jedi Knights were dead? 

“Put him down there,” Quinlan instructed, pointing to the center of his bed. “Gently. Don't jostle him. I’m not responsible for Skywalker’s actions if you hurt him.”

With all the care and patience Ahsoka possessed, she gently laid the bird out on the bed on his back, taking care to step back silently when she was done. Her heart ached at his pitiful cries, which were little more than faint rasping at this point. 

Quinlan seemed lost as he looked down at the eagle, his brows furrowed and mouth hanging open a little, as if he couldn’t believe what was in front of him. Ahsoka noticed another golden tattoo on the man’s arm and wondered what it meant. She resolved to ask him about it once he saved the eagle. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“What?” Quinlan turned to look at Ahsoka, shaken out of his daze at her face.”No! Leave us! You’re only going to get in the way.”

“But you  _ are  _ Quinlan Vos, right?” Ahsoka asked, unwilling to leave Anakin’s pet alone with some stranger who, only minutes ago, had suggested they both enjoyed a meal of said creature. 

“Yes! I am! Now get out, girl!” Quinlan growled, taking Ahsoka by the shoulder and guiding her to the door. He shoved her back outside and slammed the door behind her, pulling the inside bolt closed.

 

* * *

_ Sweet Force, that girl asks a lot of questions. I wonder who she wronged in a past life to get caught up with Skywalker? _

Turning back to the eagle, Quinlan padded over to the bird quietly, holding up his hands and reaching out with the Force to wrap the eagle in the warm, soothing presence of an old friend. “Shhh… don’t be frightened. Skywalker was right. I know what to do.”

The eagle let out a shriek of pain as Quinlan pulled back the cloth wrapped around it, pinning its wing and the crossbow bolt close to its torso. He grimaced at the blood on the feathers and the wound, letting out a breath as he urged a tendril of the Force forward, weaving a small healing spell in the air and letting it settle on the eagle. He glanced up at the window and saw that the dusk was almost over. 

“We need to wait a little, my friend.”

 

* * *

Ahsoka watched Quinlan Vos slip out the door to his rooms from atop a crumbling line of masonry overhead. He locked the door behind him and waved his hand over it before hurrying around the corner of the building mumbling to himself. “Bacta. I need more bacta.” 

Slipping down from her precarious hiding spot, Ahsoka landed lightly without making a sound. Frowning at the direction Quinlan had left in, she pulled out a lock pick from a pouch hanging off her belt and took the heavy, rusted iron lock in her hand. 

Or at least she tried to.

Ahsoka found herself staring blankly at the door, trying repeatedly to grab at the lock and always finding her hand slipping just past it or scraping against the fibrous wood of the door. 

“What in the Sith Hells?” Ahsoka muttered, unknowingly quoting Anakin as she scowled at the lock, her hands fisted on her hips. She looked back over her shoulder and closed her eyes, focusing on what her montrals were telling her. Quinlan Vos was on the far side of the ruins, gathering things from rustling and crackling plants that Ahsoka surmised made up a small garden. Whatever he was looking for, it was giving him a devil of a time based on the curses she could just make out which convinced Ahsoka she had enough time to intently focus on the lock in front of her.

Taking a deep breath, Ahsoka stared straight at the lock and reached out with a slow and steady hand, repeating to herself that she did not believe in the  _ Ashla _ or the Force or whatever it was. 

_I am going to pick this lock and no magic spell is going to stop me_ , Ahsoka told the rusty hunk keeping her from checking on Anakin’s bird. _Anakin needs me. His eagle needs me. You will_ ** _not_** _stop me._

Ahsoka felt something  _ push  _ against her hand for a tough, almost painful moment before it gave way like melting snow and then the lock was in her hand. Triumph bloomed in her spirit as Ahsoka made quick work of the padlock. She was the Horned Mouse, after all, and they hadn’t make a lock yet she couldn’t pick.

Not even a weird Force-protected lock could stop Ahsoka when she set her mind to something.

Carefully pulling the latch free, Ahsoka lifted the bar that was holding the door shut and pushed her way into Quinlan’s rooms. She grimaced at the groan of the hinges, nearly jumping out of her skin as she pulled it shut behind her. 

The sun had finally set now and it seemed that Quinlan had lit every last candle in his rooms, filling the long suite with a flickering golden light that cast odd twisted shadows on the wall as Ahsoka stepped into the space. Hurrying back towards the bed where she left the eagle, she glanced at the pile of armor and mail, noting the same sigil on the chest plate that was on Anakin’s cloak pin. 

Ahsoka turned toward the bed to share her triumphant observation with her feathered friend when she noticed that there was a man now lying in Quinlan Vos’s bed, his waist and legs covered in brown and black furs.

A naked man.

A naked, pale man.

_ The _ Pale Man, in fact.

With a crossbow bolt embedded in his shoulder.

Ahsoka let out a gasp of shock and jumped back, instinctively turning her gaze away from Obi-Wan on the bed. Her feet were faster than her brain, sending her in awkward, backward steps to the door, trying to carry her out of the room and away from Obi-Wan in bed with a crossbow bolt where the eagle should have been and what did this mean, Merciful Mother, and how could Ahsoka get away from it before she was lost?

“Anakin? Is he…?” Obi-Wan managed to raise his head just enough to make eye contact with Ahsoka, even as she tried desperately to look everywhere in the room but at the Pale Man lying wounded on the sleeping pallet. His voice was weak and strained but there was an undercurrent of fear as his hand curled in the furs covering him. 

Confused, Ahsoka came to a halt and stared at the floor, unwilling to accept what her eyes were telling her, what her senses were screaming at her: this was the Pale Man, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had protected her from the black wolf and freed her from being imprisoned by Anakin. Somehow, some way, he had come to have the same injury as Anakin’s eagle. 

_ But that’s impossible! I would have seen him riding after me. And he wasn’t here before when I came in. Great Mother Shaak Ti, what is going on? _

Obi-Wan strained against his injury, trying to reach out to Ahsoka and forcing his pale, sweating face into something like a comforting smile. It came out like a twisted grimace of agony before he fell back against the sheets. He let out a weak and defeated gasp, “Please, Ahsoka, is he hurt?”

“He’s fine,” Ahsoka blurted out, feeling compelled to move forward, as if draw closer to Obi-Wan and his pain and worry that hovered like a cloud around him. “Anakin’s fine. He…”

What could she tell him? That Anakin had fought like a frenzied madman and killed a small group of Sith guards and hacked off the arm of a thick-blooded captain? That when she tried to save Anakin from one of the guards sneaking up behind him with a crossbow that the bolt flew into the air and struck Anakin’s eagle in the same place Obi-Wan was…

No. Ahsoka wasn’t going to tell Obi-Wan the truth. Not all of it anyway. Just enough to ease his mind and help him recover. 

“There was a terrible battle,” Ahsoka said, taking another few steps forward, looking down at Obi-Wan’s pained countenance as he gripped the furs covering him. She imagined he was trying to resist the very understandable urge to yank the bolt out and she couldn’t blame him. 

But her words seemed to help a little, to ease some of the strain around Obi-Wan’s eyes, and she continued. “Anakin fought like a lion. The eagle… The eagle was struck. But you know that, don’t you?”

Obi-Wan face was a mask of bitter resignation and exhaustion. “Yes.”

Crossing the last few feet into the back half of the room, Ahsoka gazed down at Obi-Wan, her eyes round as she watched him close his eyes and try to calm himself, to steady his breathing even as each one caused him pain. He clenched his jaw in silent agony, sweat starting to darken his hair. 

The wound to his shoulder was red and angry, as if infection was trying to set in. 

The eagle and Obi-Wan had the same injury. 

Somehow, some way, they were one and the same. 

Obi-Wan was Anakin’s eagle.

Ahsoka inhaled sharply as understanding dawned. Everything suddenly made sense now. 

Why Obi-Wan was following them but she never saw him during the day. Why Anakin had been so distraught when the eagle was wounded. Why he had vowed to hunt her to the end of his days is she didn’t get his bird to safety.

The eagle was Obi-Wan and he was looking up at her, his skin paler than usual and his eyes slate-grey in the flickering light from the fire. 

It was clear he was waiting for her to say something.

“Are you flesh or are you spirit?” Ahsoka finally asked, chewing on her lower lip nervously, wondering if she had spent the past few days with a ghost. 

Obi-Wan sighed softly and looked away, his voice full of grief. 

“I am sorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Obi-Wan...
> 
> Hey everybody! How's it going? Long time no update! XD 
> 
> I think this is the first time I've written for Quinlan as an adult so I hope he comes across well. There's also some dialogue in this chapter that is lifted word-for-word from the movie so if you're wondering why some seems different or perhaps a bit more formal than usual, it's because I'm quoting Ladyhawke. 
> 
> I'd also like to thank the lovely Ruby a.k.a. [Silver-Helix](http://silver-helix.tumblr.com/) over at tumblr for [producing some absolutely amazing and adorable fan art.](http://silver-helix.tumblr.com/post/165154979336/i-have-to-get-these-out-of-my-head-otherwise-its) I love all of the drawings but I'm particularly struck by how she captured Obi-Wan's calm sadness and his serenity in the face of a large and grumpy Wolf!Anakin. And Ahsoka and Twlight are BEYOND cute and Anakin and Eagle! Obi-Wan are beautiful! Thank you so much Ruby for creating and sharing such wonderful drawings with me and everyone else!
> 
> If all goes according to plan the next update will be September 24th! If you'd like to have a gif party with me, you can find me at tumblr at [FireflyFish](https://fireflyfish.tumblr.com/)


	7. The Curse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Quinlan Vos tends to Obi-Wan's wounds, Ashoka wonders about the wolf following them and the Emperor has a visitor.

“I am sorrow.”

At Obi-Wan’s bleak, simple words Ahsoka felt tears well up. Her jaw worked, as her mind struggled to find the words to comfort him, to assure him that he was wrong, that he wasn’t sorrow, that he was her friend.

That he wasn’t alone.

And yet, even as she tried to find these words, tried to string them together in something that might have resembled a sentence, she could sense that nothing she could say or do would lift the shroud of misery from Obi-Wan. It seemed as if the emotion had become a part of him, as if he were the very avatar of despair and loss.

It broke Ahsoka’s heart, the tears finally spilling over as she took a breath, scrubbing at her cheeks lest Obi-Wan see them and she somehow make his suffering worse.

“What the hell? Who broke my- What are you doing in here, girl?!” Quinlan growled as he pulled open the door to the suite.

She jerked her head in his direction, her blue eyes round with tears.

“I told you to wait outside!”

Ahsoka looked up at Quinlan, her face pleading for patience and understanding, something the man clearly did not have much of. He fisted his hands on his hips and glared down at her, the harsh line of his nose and sharp features making his annoyance even more threatening in the flickering shadows cast by the candles. Ahsoka swallowed nervously and looked back at Obi-Wan, one hand out towards him. “Can I help?”

“No, you cannot,” Quinlan snorted, pushing past her and setting the picked lock down as he carried his bag of medicinal plants and herbs over to a table. “You’ve done more than enough already. Get out of here before I kick you out.”

“Quinlan,” Obi-Wan groaned softly, his eyes closed against the pain. “Don’t be an ass. She didn’t know any better.”

“That’s not my fault,” came Quinlan’s retort as he turned to face Ahsoka, pointing to the door. “Out. Now. I won’t say it again.”

“But… but…” Ahsoka scoured her brain, trying to make it work, trying to find a reason to stay with her injured friend, to make sure this Quinlan Vos fellow actually knew what he was doing. Now that she knew who Obi-Wan was, and knowing how deeply Anakin cared for him, how could she abandon him to some man who had been drunk only a little bit ago?

_If he does something horrible to Obi-Wan, Skyguy is going to kill me! He told me so himself!_

“I have to stay! What am I going to tell Anakin when he gets here? I brought Obi-Wan to you and then stepped out for a walk while you killed him trying to save his life?”

“Killed him?!” Quinlan gaped at Ahsoka, his eyes round and aura furious. “Listen here, little one, I have been putting this son of a gundark back together for years, okay? Years! If anybody is going to get Obi-Wan Kenobi killed by accident it’s going to be Anakin-karking-Skywalker, not me!”

Quinlan was about to shove her back outside when Obi-Wan’s exhausted voice called out, “Ahsoka? Please go unsaddle Twilight and bring me my journal. It’s in the cylinder in the right saddle pack.”

Looking from Obi-Wan’s pale form to Quinlan and back again, Ahsoka decided that it was alright to leave if Obi-Wan dismissed her.

Anakin liked him and would be less likely to murder her if she told him she left because the Pale Man told her to.

With her chin held high and the most imperious expression she could manage, Ahsoka turned around and marched out the door to go see to Twilight and retrieve what Obi-Wan asked for.

 

* * *

 

“Was that necessary, Quin?” Obi-Wan sighed, turning a disappointed face to his old friend and fellow former Jedi Knight. “Anakin’s bullying has terrified her and you’re not helping.”

“She picked my lock!” Quinlan protested as he upended the contents of his gathering sack on the small table by the window. “I put one of my best spells on that thing and she tore through it like it was gauze.”

A wane, satisfied smile appeared on Obi-Wan’s face. “She’s strong in the Force.”

“Don’t look so pleased with yourself,” Quinlan snorted, pulling a mortar and pestle from the bureau tucked up against the far wall. “You should be resting and not aggravating that shoulder.”

Gritting his teeth through another wave of pain, Obi-Wan tried to continue on, “I shall cancel my plans to attend the ball then. Do give my regards to the Duchess.”

“I’m sure she’ll understand,” Quinlan said, pulling out a small paring knife from somewhere on his person. He set to work peeling bacta root as he levitated a kettle of water over onto a hook hanging over the fire in the hearth.

The two friends fell silent for a long while, Quinlan slowly working the bacta root into a thick paste and Obi-Wan doing his best to stay awake. The sound of fire crackling and popping filled up the room and the warmth from the hearth made it harder for Obi-Wan to resist falling into exhausted slumber. It was so much easier to let his eyes close, to stop resisting the heaviness of his eyelids and to let his head fall to the side.

_Why does everything feel so heavy? Why am I trying to stay awake? There’s a…_

_A… what is it called?_

_A bolt… in my…_

Pain, white-hot lightning, pierced Obi-Wan’s lungs as Quinlan examined the wound. He jerked, letting out a sharp cry and startling Quinlan, who practically tumbled over backwards.

“By Yoda’s beard! What the hell, Kenobi?” Quinlan grumbled, taking a deep breath as he collected himself. Muttering, he walked over to another bureau back by the front door and pulled out a leather thong to tie back his thick, dark dreadlocks. “I’m almost done with the bacta. I don’t suppose you know what happened to you, do you?”

“You… eh… mean besides being shot with a crossbow?” Obi-Wan wheezed out something that might have been a laugh. “Not particularly. We were a day’s journey west of here last night. West of that miserable little clutch of shepherd huts.”

Quinlan nodded, returning to the main area and grabbing a thick, folded rag he used to remove the hot kettle from over the fire. Pouring it out into a bowl and then returning it to its hook, he took another cloth and walked over to Obi-Wan, kneeling on the floor next to him. “You should have told me you were coming. I would have cleaned the place up. I might have even left some wine for you.”

“No need for sobriety on your part,” Obi-Wan grunted, his jaw tight with pain. “Or mine. I don’t suppose you have any to share with me?”

“Patients don’t get wine,” Quinlan replied with an infuriating smile on his face. “Especially mouthy eagles who tried to bite my finger an hour ago.”

“I have no doubt… ah… that you provoked me to that act of violence,” came Obi-Wan’s weary reply. He risked a glance over at the bolt still in his shoulder and let out a moan as his muscles screamed in pain. “Sweet Force, Quin! Get on with it!”

“Patience,” Quinlan replied, soaking one cloth in the hot water and another in bacta paste. He slowly pulled back the furs covering Obi-Wan and frowned at the sweat covering his torso even as the injured man shivered against the brisk air. He couldn’t help noticing just how thin his friend had become. He wasn’t gaunt, not yet, but it was clear that the half-life he was living was taking its toll on Obi-Wan. “You look terrible. Is that asshole not feeding you?”

“Not now, Quin!” Obi-Wan snapped, his hands curling into fists in the thin sheet draped over his waist and hips. He tried to control his breathing, to remember how he had called upon the Force to numb the pain in his body but it seemed harder to do than he remembered. It was like struggling against a stone wall that kept wanting to topple over him and crush him beneath its weight. “Karking hell!”

“It’s the curse,” Quinlan explained as he shifted his weight against Obi-Wan, bracing them both on the bed, one hand around the crossbow bolt, the other on his shoulder. “It doesn’t like this bolt in your shoulder.”

“Oh and I do?” Obi-Wan hissed, breathing hard even as he tried not to let his fear of pain, of the anticipation of it, cloud his mind. “It’s not like I did this on purpose.”

Quinlan instructed Obi-Wan to put his hand on Quinlan’s shoulder, to have something to hold onto. Making a fist with his other hand in the sheets, Obi-Wan did as he was asked and locked eyes with Quinlan.

“On the count of three,” Quinlan said, taking a firm grip on the bolt.

Obi-Wan nodded, gasping for air.

“Three, two, ONE!”

As the bolt came free, Obi-Wan screamed.

 

* * *

 

Perched on a wall, looking out over the valley below Quinlan’s castle, Ahsoka sat with Obi-Wan’s canister in her hands, frowning at the crescent moon overhead. She had managed to unsaddle Twilight, in spite of her lack of knowledge on the subject, and found the required object.

She was on her way back to the room where her friend was waiting when something told her to stop. She didn’t understand where the feeling came from, didn’t know what it meant, but she suddenly had a bone-deep feeling she needed to stay outside and give the two Jedi Knights some time alone.

Ahsoka wondered if it was the Ash- no. That wasn’t what Anakin and Obi-Wan called it. The Force? That sounded right. She wondered if the strange feeling twisting in her gut was the Force.

Was that why Ahsoka had been drawn into this nightmarish debacle? Because she had this Force thing?

And what did that mean? What was the good of having the Force if no one could teach her how to use it? If the very act of using the Force was considered treason by the Empire?

The City of Dawn had fallen. The Jedi were extinct.

Except for the two up in the ruins of the castle.

_Nope. Not thinking about that. About any of that._

Twilight’s hoof struck a rock as he pawed at the earth, a low rumble of exhaustion drifting through the night as he worked over the sweet grass where he was tied up. The stars overhead were beautiful, filling the sky with tiny shards of light as Ahsoka stared up at them, wondering how many there were and what is was like to look down on the world below. A cool breeze wound its way along the edge of the wall Ahsoka was sitting on, making her and Twilight shiver.

“I think I should start a fire,” Ahsoka said to no one and yet she felt like she was still talking to someone, something, perhaps.

Maybe the Force?

Could one talk to the Force?

Hopping off the wall, Ahsoka picked her way back up the crumbling steps to a round area that looked like it had once been a fire pit. She gathered some kindling and got a small fire going quickly enough before she settled back against a low curved stone bench to warm herself.

“Please,” Ahsoka whispered to the stars overhead, wondering if they were listening to her, if the Great Mother Shaak Ti was tired of listening to her prayers. “Please help him. He’s never been anything but kind to me. A little weird yes, but still kind.”

There was no answer and in the growing warmth of the fire Ahsoka was content to let her mind wander as she gazed into the flames.

She wasn’t sure how long she had been sitting there when the high-pitched screech of ancient hinges startled her and the muttered cursing of Quinlan Vos grew louder as he picked his way through the dark toward the fire pit.

“By all the Sith Hells! That is the last time I patch that Force-forsaken _chuta_ up,” Quinlan grumbled, marching around Ahsoka’s fire pit and over to what she now realized was a skin full of wine. A cup appeared from somewhere in the murky shadows around the fire and Ahsoka heard the man pour a full cup of wine before he took a long drink.

And then refilled it.

“Is he all right?” Ahsoka asked, watching Quinlan drink and refill his cup once again before he turned around to look back at her, leaning against the wall, one arm resting on his belt. When she didn’t get an answer, Ahsoka repeated her question. “Is Obi-Wan going to be all right?”

Quinlan narrowed his eyes at her before he glanced up the hill to the top of the castle where Obi-Wan was currently sleeping. “He’ll be fine. There’s nothing bacta root can’t fix. Well, that and wine.”

“Did you give him wine?!” Ahsoka gasped, sitting up in horror. “He’s injured! You don’t get an injured man drunk!”

“Spoken like someone who’s never had a crossbow bolt in her shoulder,” Quinlan grinned, making his face sharp and threatening in the firelight. “What do they call you, girl?”

Ahsoka sniffed and held her head high, tall and proud. “I’m the Horned Mouse, Ahsoka Tano.”

Quinlan gave her a long measuring look before answering, “Mice don’t have horns, Ahsoka.”

“That’s… You… that’s not important!” Ahsoka huffed, folding her arms across her chest as she glared off into the distance, trying not to let his words sting as much as they did.

There was a angry mulish silence between them before the lonely howl of a wolf pierced the night, startling Ahsoka out of her anger as she glared up at the sky overhead.

“That's him… isn’t it?” Ahsoka asked, reluctantly turning back to Quinlan and hoping for more answers this time. “The wolf… somehow, that’s Anakin, isn’t it?”

The Jedi looked down at her, his brown eyes dark and lost in the fire for a long moment before he finished off his cup of wine and started to pour again. “Yes. He is.”

Letting out a sigh that made him sound like he was far older than his years, Quinlan picked up the wine skin and walked over to the other side of the fire, kicking a small log into the flames. Sparks danced up into the sky, joining their celestial brothers as the Jedi took a seat.

“His name is Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Quinlan said and held up an angry finger before Ahsoka could protest that she already knew his name. “No interruptions, Padawan. You will listen to your elder when he speaks.”

Ahsoka wanted to roll her eyes and inform him that he was most definitely not her elder but she held her tongue.

Quinlan continued with his story. “He and Anakin were given over to the Jedi Temple at roughly the same time. They grew up together, thicker than thieves and twice as fast. The Masters, they said Anakin was a child of the Force, conjured into being by the Ashla itself.”

“Obi-Wan said you’re not supposed to use that word,” Ahsoka said, leaning forward her hands on her knees. “That it’s sacred.”

“Nothing’s sacred anymore,” Quinlan snorted, taking another long drink of wine. “Obi-Wan was the brightest of our generation. Clever where Skywalker was reckless and hesitant where Skywalker was confident. They balanced each other perfectly.”

“Sensing their potential, but also the danger in such intertwined souls, the Masters gave them to the same Jedi Knight to be his Padawan Squires, hoping he could help them bring stability to their precarious balance. A tall, imposing bastard called Qui-Gon Jinn who was a devotee of the practice of…”

Quinlan paused and glanced up at the tower for a moment before shaking his head. “Listen, kid, Mouse, whatever you’re calling yourself. You need to know that he didn’t approve of them, of how close they were. Don’t get caught up in the bantha scat philosophy. Unknown to the Council, Qui-Gon worked to drive them apart.”

“Well, that clearly didn’t happen,” Ahsoka snorted, looking out over the edge of the cliff as another howl echoed forlornly. “So what did?”

“They became the brightest lights in the Order,” Quinlan smiled, more like a small shadow of a happy memory. “There was nothing they could not do, could not best together. No opponent put before them they could defeat. They rode out with a party of knights and masters to defeat an incursion on the southern border of the Duchy of Mandalore, the youngest Jedi in history to be given such a task.”

“Don’t mistake me, Mouse. Qui-Gon did not approve of their closeness, nor did he approve of their misbehavior, but no one could deny their effectiveness. Their glory inspired their fellows and the younger Jedi who idolized them to work harder, to strive for more. We all wondered how they could be so damn good all the karking time! How could we have known it was their love for each other, their passion and desire to protect the other that was at the root of their success? Jedi Knights aren’t supposed to fall in love with each other, you see. Not like Obi-Wan and Anakin had.”

Quinlan paused there and shook his head. “They were an amazing team. The team every last one of us wanted to be a part of. There was even talk of them receiving the same Honored Squire from the Fett Clan. But…”

Frowning down at his drink, the Jedi’s enthusiasm for his tale seemed to dry up. Ahsoka swiftly snatched up the wine skin and hurried over to his side, refilling his drink. “But…?”

Giving Ahsoka weary grin, Quinlan took a drink. “They were discovered. Betrayed by a friend in a stupid, karking selfish moment to a knight jealous of their renown, the knight ran to the Masters and told them of the secret lovers. Furious at their deception, Knight Jinn demanded they be split up. The Council agreed and sent Skywalker to the Imperial City to replace the old Captain of the Guard for the Emperor Valorum. They set Obi-Wan, who was always better at politics and beloved by everyone, to work in their army, protecting kingdoms that called for aid, like Alderaan and Chandrila.”

“The Masters had hoped the separation would tear the two apart but, as they say, absence only makes the heart grow fonder. Kenobi and Skywalker wrote to each other constantly. Used any opportunity to see the other, no matter how flimsy. Competed in tournaments just to catch a glimpse of the other on horseback or in a duel.” Quinlan bowed his head, shaking it wearily.

“And then Skywalker fell in with Grand Duke Palpatine.”

“The Emperor?!” Ahsoka gasped, her eyes round in shock. She couldn’t really remember a time before Emperor Palpatine’s rise to the throne. She could only vaguely recall when the colors of her city turned from blue and white to black and red but what she did remember perfectly was the day Imperial soldiers marched through the River district attacking any thick-blood who got in their way. Plo Koon stood in the doorway of his orphanage, his hand curled against the doorframe and the talon on his fingers cutting into the wood as he watched the march. She had known then that life was going to be different, and not for the better.

“Yes, the thrice-cursed Sith bastard himself,” Quinlan spat, picking up a small log of wood and throwing it into the fire. “He wormed his way into Skywalker’s brain, told him sweet stories and lies. Convinced him that the only way to be with Obi-Wan was to leave the Order and join the Empire, to earn a title prestigious enough to win Obi-Wan away from the Order. As if titles would have mattered to Obi-Wan.”

“So what happened next?” Ahsoka asked, completely caught up in his words. “How did they end up like… you know?”

Quinlan frowned and finished off his cup of wine before letting out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. Not fully. When Obi-Wan stopped here before, he only told me that he is not guilty of the crimes the Empire says he is. That he didn’t kill Emperor Valorum and that Emperor Palpatine is a Sith, the immortal enemy of the Jedi Knights.”

“The Dark side of the Force spat out a terrible curse and you have seen it working,” Quinlan said finally, his voice leaden and low. “By day, Obi-Wan is the golden eagle you brought to me. And by night, as you already know, the black wolf that haunts his steps is Anakin.”

“Poor, dumb creatures with no memory of the half-life of their human existence, never touching in the flesh. Only the anguish of a split-second at sunrise and sunset when they can almost touch, but never do.”

Anakin howled in the distance, his cry taking on a new and deeper sound of pain to Ahsoka’s mind as she shivered, though whether it was against the cold or the heartbreak of their story, she didn’t know.

“Eternally together, forever apart,” Ahsoka murmured, looking up at Quinlan through the firelight.

He nodded sadly. “As long as the sun rises and sets, as long as there is day and night, and as long as they both shall live.”

Standing up with a grunt, Quinlan gazed down at Ahsoka, his eyes drifting over the protective canister that held Obi-Wan’s journal, the only way for the two to communicate with each other. “You have stumbled into a tragic story, Ahsoka Tano. And now, whether you like it or not, you are lost in it with the rest of us.”

 

* * *

 

“Your Grace?”

“What is it, Sergeant Piett?”

“Cad Bane is here as you requested.”

The Emperor looked up from the book he had been reading, a pleased smile on his face.

Closing the tome with a sharp crack that made the soldier at the door flinch, Palpatine rose from his chair and handed the book off to a servant. “Show the hunter into the receiving parlor and inform him I will be there shortly.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” Piett replied, bowing at the waist before he backed out of the room.

The Emperor gestured to the red-cloaked guards standing by the door and they seamlessly fell into step behind him: silent, crimson and deadly shadows.

Moving with the slow and stately gait of a procession, Palpatine crossed through the high vaulted hallways of the Imperial Palace, noting with pleasure the vermillion fall of velvet drapes and the angular symbol of his reign emblazoned on the rich carpeting beneath his feet.

That fool Valorum had been fond of insipid colors and thin fabrics that had more in common with the Selkath fishwives in the Port of Kamino than the Imperial throne. His problem had always been that he lacked imagination and trusted too easily.

In the end, it got him killed.

Palpatine relished the memory of the look on Valorum’s face when he saw the illusion of Captain Kenobi melt away to reveal the man that had truly killed him.

It was almost as beautiful as the fury on Skywalker’s face when Skywalker tried to kill him.

If only the real Kenobi hadn’t intervened at the last moment, convincing his foolish lover that it was better to flee than fight.

As if there was anywhere in this world that was safe from the power of the Dark Side.

It was no matter, Palpatine told himself as he crossed the threshold of the receiving parlor, catching sight of the repulsive blue thick-blooded Duros wearing a truly heinous brown leather hat.

He would have approved of the monstrosity atop the Duros’s head if it was intended to spare others the unfortunate sight of his face but Palpatine knew for a fact it was not.

 _Arrogant little blue toad,_ the Emperor sneered as he walked to his throne and sat down, taking note that Cad Bane had not yet bowed to him.

“The bounty hunter, Cad Bane, Your Grace,” Piett announced before departing quickly.

“Emperor Palpatine,” Bane croaked, his voice lower than normal for his people. He raised the brim of his hat in what Palpatine dismissed as a delayed sign of respect. “What can I do for you?”

“I need you to find a man for me,” the Emperor said, relaxing back into the squabs of his chair. “A very dangerous man.”

“How dangerous are we talking?” Bane asked, his three-fingered hands resting on the belt around his narrow waist.

“I will pay you his weight in gold if you bring him back to me alive,” Palpatine sniffed, enjoying Bane’s clear discomfort at the uneasy aura that hung around him. Thick bloods prided themselves on being allegedly superior to humans-- stronger, faster and often with better senses-- and Palpatine took a perverse joy in allowing such lower life forms a glimpse of his own terrible power.

“Sounds like my kind of man,” Bane said, his pallid lips pulled into a smile that covered his fear. “Who is he? What did he do to get on your bad side?”

“What he did is of no concern to you,” Palpatine said, making sure his tone brooked no arguments. “This man travels by night, _only_ by night. His sun is the moon.”

Bane frowned, the smooth blue skin of his forehead wrinkling just slightly. “Ah huh. And does this man have a name?”

Palpatine smiled, allowing himself a moment of indulgence and enjoying the distaste seeping from Cad Bane. It wasn’t very often that he dropped the veneer of the kindly old man who had seemed to stumble into power. He found it far more prudent to keep his true nature hidden and reveal himself only to his most trusted servant or those he was about to kill.

His master had often lamented the laziness and sloppiness of their predecessors in the line of Sith and Palpatine had taken that lesson to heart.

His master never even had a chance to realize Palpatine’s own secret deception, dying in his sleep like he had.

Just the memory of it brought a smile to his lips, a cruel, sneering twist of his lips that made Bane take a step back. “Your Grace? What is his name?”

“Obi-Wan Kenobi. Find him and bring him to me, alive.”

It was Skywalker that Palpatine truly wanted, but it seemed he could not have one without the other and Kenobi was the weaker of the two. It would be easy enough to ensure Skywalker’s loyalty in exchange for the chance to be with his beloved Jedi again. All he needed was Kenobi under his control, a jewel in a box, a prize to dangle in front of Skywalker to make him understand that his destiny lay with Palpatine and the Dark.

With Kenobi under his control, with his precious life in his hands, Skywalker would do anything Palpatine asked of him.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi?” Bane echoed, head canted to the side. “Didn’t he murder your predecessor?”

The Emperor chuckled, a dry, rattling crackle of dark amusement. “He did. I should like to properly thank him.”

The Duros said nothing to that, merely folding his arms over his chest, no doubt desperately trying to pretend he wasn’t intimidated by Palpatine’s reaction. The thick blood glanced to the door and cleared his throat before speaking, choosing his words carefully. “If… there’s nothing else I need to know, I’ll be leaving now.”

“There is a wolf.”

Palpatine found himself surprised at his own words but realized that this brief gift of information was necessary to ensure the safe delivery of both Kenobi and Skywalker.

“A wolf?” Bane asked, his red eyes narrowing.

“A black wolf,” Palpatine continued on, the pleased smile on his face curdling into a sneer. “The wolf that… _loves_ him. Find Kenobi and you will find the wolf. Bring Kenobi to me and the wolf will follow.”

Bane turned his gaze from the Emperor, the thin, grossly elongated digits of his hand stroking his chin as he took in this new information. Finally coming to a decision, Bane titled the brim of his hat up to the Emperor. “That will cost you double.”

“Money is of no concern,” Palpatine sniffed as he stood up, brushing away the thick blood with one hand. “I want Kenobi, alive. The wolf will follow. That is all you need concern yourself with. Sergeant Piett will give you everything you need to ensure Kenobi does not escape once you’ve captured him. Good hunting, Bane.”

The Emperor turned away from the thick blood and walked back the way he came, feeling a primal satisfaction at the thought of that interfering Jedi Knight finally brought to heel, to trap and shackle the last of the Ashla’s pathetic warriors into the Dark where his very life would serve only to enable the corruption and service of Palpatine’s chosen apprentice.

_Soon Kenobi will be my prisoner and, with his life in my hands, Skywalker will have no choice but to accept his fate._

_It is only a matter of time, Anakin Skywalker, before you kneel before me and take your place at my side._

The sounds of the Emperor’s dark laughter echoed throughout the cavernous hallways of the Imperial Palace like the crack of distant thunder heralding an oncoming storm.


End file.
